Litter and Love Letters: Council Creek has it all!

Photos and text by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Northwest AmeriCorps member Lauren McKenna

City View Charter School 6th grade, 5/6/2013

End of the year = nap time/ play time in the grass for this enthusiastic bunch!

Scrapbooks!

……………….. science projects!

bottles of mystery liquids!

……………………………………………. report cards!

and even a love letter!

… sounds like a schools trash bin on the last day of school!  Actually, these items were found by the City View Charter School 6th graders in the neighborhood along Council Creek (by Ryland Park).  A seemingly well-kept neighborhood had more litter than any of the students suspected — about 40 pounds! Then students wrote reflections on their time with Green Team at Council Creek — many were about how terrible they now think litter is!

“People throw away so many things that could be recycled, all it does is hurt the world and could eventually destroy it.  Work hard, play hard.  Work hard cleaning up, have a planet to play in.”

- Nate, 6th grade

Taking a “litter break”

Found a scrapbook… and she knew the owner, so she took it home to retun it to them!

A sophisticated reading of the love letter found!

Reflecting on their time at COuncil Creek; about 5 min later, everyone was rolling down the grassy slope at Ryland Park

Ta da! Council Creek sure is neat!

Tonya Mauk and her wild and crazy-awesome 6th graders!

Litter does not come just from litterbugs… it comes from all the things people use that do not break down.  While plastics, for example, have helped improve people’s lives, it also has lead to SO MUCH WASTE!  Trash can collect in our waterways, affecting wildlife and the quality of the water we ALL depend on.  Don’t litter, find news ways of doing day-to-day things without using plastic, avoid a lot of packaging …  and pick up after your pet!  Learn more about the effects of litter here and ways you can help improve water quality at home here!

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THANK YOU to City View’s 6th grade class, their teachers and all the amazing adult chaperones who came to help out — and experience the joys of –  Council Creek!

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Seven Saturdays, a Year of Stewardship

Photos and text by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Northwest AmeriCorps member Lauren McKenna

On Forest Grove High School’s last SOLVE Green Team day, they:

Removing blackberry roots

Trimming back reed canarygrass

Trimming back reed canarygrass

Laying coffee bags around native plants

But back in September 2012, Ben Crabtree’s sophomore bio students probably did not think they would:

- plant on the day of the first frost

- spend hours in drizzling rain

- find mating newts

- become experienced bioengineers

- be able to tell the difference between Armenian, Trailing and Evergreen blackberry

- haul shredded Douglas-fir mulch through the mud

… for the sake of Gales Creek!

This special group of young people spent seven Saturday mornings stewarding Gales Creek.  In addition to receiving dual credit at Portland Community College, they also removed invasive reed canarygrass and blackberry, planted native trees and shrubs, mulched them, made and installed Pacific Willow live cuttings, looked at the bug life in the creek, laid down burlap coffee bags to shad out invasives, wrote poems and articles and drew pictures about the creek.  Let’s just say it was a full — and successful — year!  About 18 hours worth!  Check out their year on Green Team below!

Removing invasives in October!

Planting in November!

Mulching in December!

Removing blackberry roots in March!

Willow staking in April!

THANK YOU Forest Grove High School and Mr. Crabtree for your dedication to Gales Creek, the laughs and conversations and new discoveries.  It has been a wonderful year with each of you!

It’s Macro Season!

Photos and text by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Norhtwest AmeriCorps members Lauren McKenna and Nicole Poletto

Donning thigh-high waders, students collected (and returned) life from the creek to assess how healthy it is, and look at all the cool bugs!

Four Wednesdays worth of removing invasive teasel, blackberry and reed canarygrass, touring Willow Creek, laying down coffee bags to prevent invasives and 24 rounds of macroinvertebrate surveys!  During Rachel Carson’s last visits to Willow Creek for the school year (the 6th and 7th graders will be back in the fall!), they got to return to the “old” site where their school started working at with SOLVE back in 2004.  About 90% of the native plants at the large site were planted by current and past Rachel Carson students!  The creek is in good shape, lined with willows and Douglas spirea, home to herons and newts.

REALLY BIG Dragonfly larvae!

Check out the photos from each of their four visits!

Wildlife students found:

Rotation #1 (4/3/2013)

Rotation #2 (4/10/2013)

Rotation #3 (4/17/2013)

Rotation #4 (5/8/2013)

Now, let’s take a look at the first of 20 visits to Willow Creek!  Photos and haikus from Rachel Carson’s first SOLVE day of the school year on Sept. 26, 2012:

Backyard wildlife near

Learning working helping all

Health for years to come

- Kim S.

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.

Service:

The breeze through the air,

The sun beating on our backs,

The joy of hard work.

- Cecilee Henstrom

Blackberry removal needs teamwork!

So many changes,

I am proud of what I’ve done

I’ve made a difference.

-Annonymous

.

.

..

One group of people

In a small ecosystem

Making a big change

- Annonymous

Macroinvertebrate survey with Mr. Gibson.

Willow Creek

Is a wonder to us all

Let’s all enjoy it

-Annonymous

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.

.

Here at Willow Creek

Beautiful land surrounds me

Happy to restore

- Leslie

THANK YOU to all the Rachel Carson students who have been ALWAYS enthusiastic, the teachers who make this happen and the chaperons who are always ready for anything — and any weather!  Rain AND shine … it’s been a blast!  Thank you for a great year; SOLVE looks forward to more next year!

Rock Creek Middle School returns to Rock Creek!

Written by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest AmeriCorps member, Nicole Poletto

Mulching our natives!

Reflecting on Rock Creek

Rock Creek Middle School @ Rock Creek on 4.18.2013

Rock Creek Middle School is dedicated to restoring our watershed!

We spent the evening mulching some native species to help add nutrients to the soil and to suppress weeds.  These mulch “donuts” will also help the plant retain water in the warm summer months!  However, while mulching our native plants, it was impossible not to notice (and remove!) all of the invasive species that were creeping in.  Armenian Blackberry, Teasel, and Robert’s Geranium were some that we found – just to name a few!  At the end of the day, we took some time to reflect on our work at Rock Creek and how we help improve the health of our watershed for future generations.  We left feeling accomplished and excited for our next outing!

Together, we can make a difference!

Written by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest AmeriCorps members Nicole Poletto and Lauren McKenna

West Linn HS @ Rinearson Creek on 4.17 and 4.18.2013

Gladstone HS @ Rinearson Creek on 4.18.2013

Rinearson Creek was feeling the love with 2 local high schools coming to restore it!  West Linn High School and Gladstone High School were geared up and ready to mulch and protect the native plants they planted!  Mulch helps the plant retain water in the warm summer months when these schools won’t be there to take care of them.  It also adds nutrients to the soil and helps suppress weeds!

Before we mulched, we learned about some Ethnobotany of our native plants, like Oregon Grape!  It is our state flower and is anti-microbial.  If you have a cold or a cough you can crush up the leaves and stem of the plant into a tea and it will make you feel better.

Students then got to work making mulch donuts for the native plants!  A few Gladstone students even had competitions for who could make the perfect mulch donut, but we will be honest, it was almost impossible to choose!

West Linn HS:

Buckets love to stick together

Garter snake!

Trilliums!

Caging our conifers from beaver damage!

Gladstone HS:

Lauren (SOLVE) talks about some native plant Ethnobotany

Making mulch donuts

The perfect mulch donut!

A few West Linn students also caged a few conifers to protect them from beaver damage.  As if that wasn’t enough for a days work – we also spent some time reflecting on the year for the community newsletter that will be distributed at the end of the year to the surrounding community!

On Thursday, West Linn HS celebrated Global Youth Service Day by leading a tour of Rinearson Creek.  SOLVE’s Green Team students are part of the movement of 2,346 projects in 135 countries of youth giving back to their community to make the world a better place on Global Youth Service Day. Incredible!

Taking a tour of all the hard work at Rinearson Creek for Global Youth Service Day!

Quintin (SOLVE) thanks the students for their hard work for Global Youth Service Day

Nicole (SOLVE) and Marley discuss the health of Rinearson creek

A Reed Canarygrass area, transformed!

Thank you so much to all the students of both West Linn HS and Gladstone HS for all of your hard work throughout the year!

Together, we can make a difference!

You Go, Glencoe!

Photos and text by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Northwest AmeriCorps Member Lauren McKenna

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During Glencoe High School’s last SOLVE day at McKay Creek for this school year, lots happened.  Here’s a glimpse:

Students took a post SOLVE survey and quiz, in which they got scored 37% higher than on the quiz they took at the beginning of the year.  Way to go!

They also mulched about 300 native trees and shrubs… that THEY planted.  These plants will now retain water over the dry summer months and provide habitat, filter runoff, stabilize the soil and provide shade for McKay.  One student said we were putting the “ashes of their ancestors (mulch = ground up Douglas-fir trees) on them, but they will help the babies (newly planted native plants) survive“!

And because summer also means the return of the invasives, some students chopped down reed canarygrass — which is quickly beginning to tower over the native plants — and untangled native plants from the vine-y, invasive Morning Glory.

Lastly, we all celebrated with DONUTS!  Everyone loves donuts, and thanks to Sesame Donuts, Glencoe’s Green Team gained back some of the calories they burned working hard at McKay!  Thank you Sesame Donuts for your generous donation!

And thank you to Richard Stanley, Linda Wolf and all the wonderful Glencoe students for your openness, dedication to the environment, and for welcoming me to your school.  I had a blast and hope you stay involved with your community!

The superheroes of Mt. Scott Creek

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Written by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest members Nicole Poletto and Lauren McKenna

Spring Mountain Elementary @ Mt. Scott Creek on 4.16.2013

As one of their last times to Mt. Scott Creek, the superheroes of Spring Mountain Elementary prepared to protect their newly planted native plants!

In order to do this, we needed to pull the invasive English Ivy creeping up the trees and into our plants.  We also needed to finish mulching our plants to make sure they aren’t thirsty during the hot summer.  Both tasks were very important jobs, and neither were taken lightly!  Students ripped ivy off of rocks, trees and the ground, determined to make sure it would not grow back while other students lovingly made mulch donuts around our Snowberries, Western Red Cedars, and Ninebarks.

Ivy? Not on our watch!

We also took the chance to reflect on the year for a community newsletter that will be distributed to the surrounding community!  Since we have been working so hard at Mt. Scott Creek, this is our chance to tell the world why it is important and why we love it so much!

Here are a few of the reflections from the day:

Thank you Spring Mountain Green Team, for coming to the rescue and saving Mt. Scott Creek!