Spotlight on Stewardship
In the Spotlight: Pati An, class of '03
In her own words...
"It is impossible to grasp the tenacity of invasive weeds until one has actually tried to get rid of them." Pati An
During walks along the Sammamish River Trail near Woodinville, I watched three abandoned restoration sites become over-run with weeds. The planted natives were barely growing due to competition with invasives. In most areas, the blackberry canes had re-grown so high that the natives were barely visible. I wondered why I cared so much.
In 2003, I took the Extension Watershed Stewardship Training, which gave me a broad overview of environmental concerns. Since then, I‘ve been working on salvaging the City of Woodinville’s Sammamish River ReLeaf sites.
Needless to say, my fears of starting this project were huge. The three sites have enormous, changing challenges that come on in succession, like waves, with each new season. I thought to myself,
“Even if these sites do thrive, they are a mere drop in the bucket along the river, let alone the watershed. And, there’s no protective sheath around them. The Sammamish River is so degraded; it’s earthen system chock full of weeds, which will continue to travel by wind, birds and water into the sites.”
But, I countered those thoughts with others,
“The river is a wildlife corridor; it flows past the agricultural land that it created, through the town that I live in, along a trail that is a pedestrian thoroughfare.”
Water, earth, wildlife, plants, farms, people moving on their own steam—an incredible convergence. Importance of place helped me overcome fear of failure.
As I committed, I vowed to pace myself; avoid busy work and never beat my head on any doors on which I might knock. The reason the sites had failed so miserably in the first place was due to a lack of long-term commitment. So I knew I’d have to commit for the duration even though I had no idea what that duration would be.
I see my work as a matching grant. If others match it, I keep going. After all, if others don’t step in to help, then something must be wrong. Mostly, I try to work like water - flowing into the unobstructed way. When frustrated, getting dirty and communing with the plants and fellow dirt-plant-critter people always helps me transcend. It is lovely to know that my home extends beyond my private property.
I spent the first year on this project wandering the maze of Woodinville’s city government, trying to determine who “owned” the sites (no one) and collecting as much historical information as possible. During this time I also led several loosely organized crews.Meanwhile, the weeds were growing stronger…
In the spring of 2004, a permanent volunteer coordinator, Patrick Tefft, was hired. He was the best thing that could have happened. By that summer, we formed the Sammamish River Stewards. Since the beginning, we’ve required a minimal budget, as the City already had the tools and other infrastructure in place. Immediately after forming the SRS, Jack Lockhart, another lead volunteer, joined us on our monthly, year-round work crews. For the first year there would sometimes be just the three of us. We worked on anyway. Most volunteers aren’t consistently reliable, but they always know where to find us-- second Saturday of every month, rain or shine. We have grown to the point where even the hottest or wettest day can see 15 people turn up to work.
We try to maintain all three Sammamish ReLeaf sites, staying at each one for several months before rotating to another. After almost three years, we are still in a triage phase, but the sites are now, “more better”, than more worse. We get big boosts from annual ReLeaf and Earth Day events, United Way Day of Caring and community groups, which all bring out large numbers of volunteers. In turn, our on-the-ground planning has made these larger work crews more effective.
Meanwhile, I’ve come to know “restoration”, as a form of idealism that embodies hopefor a healthy future relationship between humans and the natural environment that we live in. And I’ve figured out that that’s why I care.
Visit this page often for updated stories and highlights from Extension Watershed Stewards at work in our communities. To view previous posts, visit the SOS archives.
