Clackamas Middle College Visits Phillips One Last Time

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Phillips Creek received even more TLC last week when students from the Clackamas Middle College Green Team came out for their last site visit of the school year this Friday. Fortunately the weather was dry, but the ground was still saturated from all of the rain we had last week and each student got to take a little (or in some cases, a lot) of Phillips Creek home with them that day. Despite the muddiness, the CMC students were excited to learn about native plants improve our watersheds by supplying bank stabilization, shade, and habitat for native animals, and they were eager to help us plant some native trees and shrubs as well as help us continue the battle against the invasive species at this site.

Students planted a lot of shrubs including Elderberry and Ninebark while others got busy making a dent in the Armenian Blackberry. These blackberry bushes have canes that are biennial meaning that they live for two years, the first year they just leaf out and the second year they fruit, and then they die. However, each cane grows from a perennial knotty root structure or “heart” as I like to call it. In order to fully eradicate the blackberry, one needs to find and dig up these root balls. Another nasty invasive at this site, taking over habitat is the English holly. This pokey plant is akin to the mythological hydra. If you cut the treelike shrub down to a stump, then it sends up several more shoots in its place. The only method we knew to fully get rid of it was to cut it, slash the stump and paint it with herbicides. However through the restoration grapevine, we learned that success in eradicating this shrub could be had by simply stripping away the bark of the holly in a ring at the base. In any tree if you cut away that outer living cambium layer, you are essentially severing the tree’s arteries and veins, and the tree will use up all of its energy trying to (unsuccessfully)  transport water and nutrients between the roots and branches and eventually die. Therefore we trusted a few students with some machetes to shave off the bark in a ring around all of the invasive holly bushes. This is the first year we’ve tried this, so let’s hope that it works!

We at SOLVE really appreciate the hard work and good humor that the Clackamas Middle College students always brought out into the field. They should be very proud of the amount of work they did this year and they left a very strong impact on not only the Phillips creek watershed community but also the Clackamas community as a whole. And hopefully Phillips creek left a lasting impression with the Clackamas Middle College Green Team members (other than the caked mud it left on clothes).

Clackamas Middle College: Getting Mulch Done at Phillips Creek

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The students with Clackamas Middle College’s Green Team recently had another day of hard work at Phillips Creek. This fall when they first started working at this site on Phillips Creek, one of SOLVE‘s more urban stream sites, students got to work removing hundreds of pounds of litter from the streams as well as removing the invasive Armenian blackberry growing alongside the stream. When winter rolled around, planting season started, and Clackamas Middle College students got several native trees and plants in the ground that was once inhabited by invasive species. Now that spring is right around the corner and planting season is nearly over, it’s time to start maintaining these plants to help them become established in their new home.

This day’s task was therefore mulching the young plants. Students took a full bucket (5 gallons) of mulch (shredded douglas fir), and placed it in a ring around each young plant. This thick layer of organic matter does a lot to help get the young plants become successful residents of Phillips Creek. First of all, it will prevent any non-native “weeds” like reed canary grass from growing right next to the mulched native plant, preventing the weeds from stealing any nutrients, sunlight, or water and generally out competing the native. The mulch also will protect these plants and their shallow young roots from drying out in the summer when the soil dries out (which is hard to imagine this time of year).

While mulching endeavors were going on, the last 20 or so plants for this site were planted. Students also helped out with the daunting task of moving the small mountain of mulch that was delivered onto the restoration site and off of the UHaul property, who were nice enough to let us use a small part of their parking lot to store mulch for a few days. In only 2 hours they moved several yards of the stuff, very impressive!

Thanks for your hard work, Clackamas Middle College Green Team! These plants are well on their way to becoming established residents of Phillips Creek.

This project is funded by Clackamas County Water Environment Services.

Saving Phillips creek, one native plant at a time

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Over 50 students from Clackamas Middle College joined us today for their second outing to Phillips Creek which runs behind the school.  Students removed Armenian Blackberry and planted native trees and shrubs along the creek.

The Phillips Creek watershed drains approximately 1,800-acres.  In large part, this drainage basin has already been urbanized with commercial buildings, high-density residential neighborhoods, and transportation surfaces.  Many of the Phillips Creek tributaries were realigned or placed underground in pipes to accommodate early development.  Although Phillips Creek suffers from these human-related changes, it is still considered sensitive habitat, provides relatively cool and well oxygenated water quality, and is home to Cutthroat trout and other fish and wildlife species.

The natives students planted today will grow to shade Phillips Creek, provide much-needed root structure to stabilize stream banks and create habitat for wildlife in the neighborhood.

Thank you Clackamas Middle College!

On your marks, get set, GROW!

This slideshow requires JavaScript. Leaves are changing, the rain is here for the winter, get excited because you know what that means… PLANTING SEASON!!! The Clackamas Middle College started our planting season with a bang being our first Green Team this year to begin the planting of native plants in their local riparian corridor. Phillips Creek has now welcomed 100 new native friends into its community thanks to the CMC Global Science classes. I am sure the Phillips Creek community will be enjoying the increased shade, bank stability, food, and habitat that these plants will provide for years to come. And you may notice that the creek has a particular sparkly new sheen (the good metaphorical kind, not the oily polluted kind) as they picked up over 50 lbs of trash, as well as some tires and an old engine that managed to find its way into Phillips Creek. Great work guys!

Here’s to a successful school year!

Thank you Green Team students, teachers, sponsors and supporters for successful year!

Clackamas’ Coffee Bagging Adventures

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A round of applause is in order for the great students at Clackamas Middle College!  Students in Amy Bishop’s class, as well as others just interested in coming out and volunteering with us, were able to coffee bag approximately 60 native plants to protect them from invasives like reed canary grass.  Students also planted native trees and shrubs to further shade the stream and halt erosion of the banks. 

Though SOLV did not have hip or chest waders, students took the initiative of trudging through the stream to remove a shopping cart and a couch from the waterway.  In a short period of time, students accomplished three of SOLV’s four project types: native planting, maintenance and litter removal.  These students certainly go the extra mile to ensure their stream is healthy; way to go, Clackamas!

Plant a tree, save a stream…

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Fifty students from Clackamas Middle College came out to Phillips Creek in the town center of Clackamas to get a hands-on feel for watershed health. 

The Phillips Creek watershed drains approximately 1,800-acres.  In large part, this drainage basin has already been urbanized with commercial buildings, high-density residential neighborhoods, and transportation surfaces.  Many of the Phillips Creek tributaries were realigned or placed underground in pipes to accommodate early development.  Although Phillips Creek suffers from these human-related changes, it is still considered sensitive habitat, provides relatively cool and well oxygenated water quality, and is home to Cutthroat trout and other fish and wildlife species.

Students planted 125 trees and shrubs including thimbleberry, ninebark, alder and oceanspray and they put 75 dogwood stakes in the ground as well.  A few students also removed some blackberry on site to make way for more natives; all of this hard work will really begin to improve the quality of Phillips Creek and its wildlife corridor.