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!

Bird Nerds

Photos and text by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest AmeriCorps Members Lauren McKenna and Nicole Poletto

Last weekend, a group of enthusiastic learners (most self-ranking as a 1 on the birding knowledge scale) gathered at Tryon Creek State Park to glean some info about common birds of the Willamette Valley — and get some good looks at the birds, too!

SOLVE Stream Team Captain, and former Green Team student, Sam Neverick and West Linn High School teacher Jim Hartman did an overview of some native birds and how they have been effected by pollution, climate change and habitat loss.  Then the group headed out into the park to see these cute critters themselves, using recorded bird calls to get responses.  Some favorites that the group spotted:

Pileated Woodpecker

Robin

Winter Wren

Rectangular holes made by a Pileated Woodpecker

Red-Breasted Nuthatch: sounds a school bus backing up… beeep beeep beeep…

Winter Wren: such a looooong bird call

Stellar Jay: it has a black mohawk! It also likes to imitate other birds…

Pileated Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker: one fits in a beer stein, the other can fit in a coffee cup!  (Left: the larger Pileated Woodpecker makes more rectangular holes in trees)

And as a SOLVE event, of course we all gawked at the fabulous native plants in bloom!

Fiddleheads

Salmonberry

Trillium

Snowberry

In all we crossed 11 birds off our bird-sighting list!  A beautiful day with some feathered friends!

Jim Hartman

Sam Neverick

Thank you to Jim Hartman and Sam Neverick, for sharing your knowledge — and joy! — of birds.  We all learned something new and have a greater appreciation for remembering all those bird calls!

Thank you Tryon Creek State Park for hosting us and for the use of the Kraft room, too!

“I’m searching for macros’ in the rain”

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Written by Stream Team Captain, Sam Neverick.  Photos by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest member, Nicole Poletto.

West Linn HS @ Rinearson Creek on 3.20 and 3.21.2013

“I’m searching for macros ’ in the rain
Just searchin’ in the rain,
What a glorious feeling,
And all of our class is happy again.
I’m laughing at clouds
So dark, up above,
The sun’s in my heart  
And I’m ready for next month’s field day with SOLVE.” 

- A revised/ more appropriate version of the song “Singing in the Rain”

West Linn High School student’s showed quite the high spirits while searching for macroinvertebrates in Rinearson Creek, in between rain showers and hail. Students learned about why we study macros (that actually live in the creek 24/7) versus just taking samples of the water from the creek. Students got up close and personal with these bugs and learned how to identify them. From Stoneflies,

                                                                                 to Mayflies,

                                                                                         to Caddisflies

                                                                                                 to True Flies, OH MY!

But before we got to identify our newly discovered friends, we had to catch them first!

West Linn Student’s collecting samples in Rinearson creek

Student’s learned the proper techniques on how to collect ”kicks” with their nets and the ideal spots to where these guys might be hiding (like in the riffles and under rocks).

After a lot of fun, West Linn students also learned about how these little guys give us information about the creek. For example, mayflies are much more tolerant to pollution than stoneflies.  Thus, the presence and absence of certain macros can tell us a lot about the health of the creek!

Students found small minnow mayflies, scuds, cased caddisflies, worms, snails, and even a leech!

We cannot say enough how much of a pleasure it is to work with such wonderful students! The dedication you guys have into making Rinearson Creek a healthy Watershed is what warms our hearts!

Love is in the air

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

West Linn HS @ Rinearson Creek on 2.13.2013 and 2.14.2013

What better way to celebrate Valentines day than to give a little love to Rinearson Creek?? In the spirit of the holiday, the students did some bioengineering in Reed Canary grass areas around Rinearson creek.  You might wonder, what does this entail?

On the first day, students scouted Meldrum Bar Park to collect live Cottonwood branches that had fallen from the trees above.  After enough Cottonwood was gathered, we created stakes out of our findings.  The students were eager to mallet their stakes into the ground and at the end of the day, the entire Reed Canary grass section had been staked.

The next day was a gLOVEly day to harvest more Dogwood and Willow to make more stakes for a different Reed Canary grass area (pesky invasives).  The sun smiled down on West Linn as they created stakes and lovingly installed them.

Harvesting Pacific Willow from stakes that we installed 3-4 years ago, check out that growth!

Stakes of Dogwood, Cottonwood, and Willow – Oh my!  Rinearson Creek is going to thrive! Thanks for the extra love, West Linn!

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SOLVE’s Annual Women in Science day will be held at Glen Otto Park in Troutdale on March 23^rd from 9-1.  Girls – Are you interested in exploring a career in science? Come chat with mentors currently in the science field over breakfast!  In the afternoon we will be planting trees up the road at Beaver Creek!  Register online at : http://www.solv.org/get-involved/events/women-science-day.  See you there!

Rockin’ around the Douglas Fir

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Written by SOLVE Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest member, Nicole Poletto

West Linn High School @ Rinearson Creek (at the confluence with the Willamette River) on 12.12.12 and 12.13.12

West Linn High School took on another fun-filled of planting at a different site along Rinearson creek.  This site is right near the confluence of the Willamette River. There were many different natives to be planted: the ever popular Douglas Fir, Big Leaf Maple, Snowberry, Salmonberry, Douglas Spirea, and Western Hemlock, just to name a few.  Western Hemlock even got extra special treatment when it was planted!  It thrives in dead tree mulch, so we decided to make our own on site.  We planted all of these plants to improve the health of the riparian corridor!!

Unfortunately, the first day of planting we got hit pretty hard with rain.  But on day 2, the sun smiled down on us and made for a beautiful winter day.  We took a planting break along the Willamette to go and hang out with the ducks, enjoy the sunshine, and reflect on our planting efforts. Here are some of the reflections from the day:

Natural beauty is the eighth wonder of the world

Do we under appreciate it?

Do we terrorize it?

We do nothing. 

But we try 

And its a beautiful effort

Because one day

It will thrive.

“I think that it is important that young people do this so that they will not take nature for granted”

“I’m feeling pretty darn good about my work today.  Deforestation is a big deal – be part of the solution.  Helps with global warming and water issues.”

Student reflection – “Rockin’ around the tree”

Haiku about restoring Rinearson

“Restore Rinearson

Help the earth, saving the world

Feels super good, man”

All in all, we planted 210 plants!! Absolutely incredible job West Linn!  Enjoy your holidays and we will see you next year.

A Green Team lesson that’ll last a lifetime…

Sam playing a game of Riparian Metaphors with West Linn students

Sam Neverick, a current freshman at Portland Community College, started her volunteer experience with SOLVE through our yearlong service-learning program, Green Team. As a student in Jim Hartmann’s Environmental Science class at West Linn High School during the 2011-2012 school year, Sam visited Abernethy Creek in Oregon City once a month with her classmates and actively participated in various stream restoration activities such as planting native trees and shrubs, testing water quality and learning all about invasive species.  On site Sam was always one of the hardest working
and most engaged students in her class, motivating her fellow classmates the whole time.  She was also the class bird expert, always looking to educate her fellow students on the local bird life at the site.  A true blossoming teacher herself!  She even presented West Linn High’s work at Abernethy Creek to watershed professionals at our end of year summit.

Sam presenting for West Linn HIgh School at the end of year SOLVE Green Team summit

When the school year was ending Sam asked SOLVE staff if there was a project she could take on while she was in college to further learn how to educate students on the importance of stream health.  She is currently studying environmental science at PCC and was hoping to job shadow SOLVE staff as she would like a career in Environmental Education.  We quickly took her up on the offer!

“Thank you for this opportunity, you have no idea how much I am in love with the Environmental Science field, and I am just extremely fortunate for your help!  I volunteer because I absolutely love it, and its what I’ll want to do forever!”

 - Sam Neverick

Last June, Sam took our Stream Team Captain Training to gain even more skills on stream and wetland restoration, volunteer management and event leadership.  Our Stream Team Captains are our key volunteers who provide leadership during our Saturday tree planting events.  Over the summer months Sam led two Saturday volunteer events to gain experience leading and motivating volunteers in the field.

Currently, Sam is helping us lead this year’s West Linn High School Green Team at Rinearson Creek in Gladstone.  She has been teaching the students all about stream health, native trees and shrubs, how to properly plant and of course about bird life all while keeping students motivated and inspired.

We at SOLVE are very lucky to have such a wonderful volunteer rise up through the volunteer training ranks to become such an outstanding and inspiring teacher for our Green Team program!  Thank you Sam!

West Linn High School at Rinearson Creek

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Written by Sam Neverick, Stream Team Captain

“For this tree pun I had to go out on a limb and branch out to some other sources…”

“Those who plant trees be-leaf in the future.”

West Linn High School @ Rinearson Creek on 11.28 – 11.29.2012

Students from West Linn High School came out today and continued from where they left off at Rinearson! Their last visit they removed a plethora of invasive species! But today planted over 125 natives! They not only brought the sun and great planting weather but they got to the ROOT of the problem at the site! They provided shade for our creek, more stable soil, new habitat and food for our lil’critters that may live there.

(Surrounded by the calls of Golden-crowned Kinglets and Bushtits,) they took time with drawing their favorite native plant species, and wrote poetry on them. Here are some of our favorites…

NEINBARK! 

Why do they reach

When death 

Is 

Inevitable 

Still 

They reach. 

Haiku about a cedar

I like the cedar 

It is the very best

  Tree cedar, the tree of life.  

(page with a muddy hand-print) 

PLANT A TREE.  

…And those are just a few! We cannot wait until we see these guys next time, and what else they’ll bring to our site!

Clematis and Blackberry are no match for West Linn High!

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Written by SOLVE Green Team Program Coordinator Meghan Ballard

West Linn High School @ Rinearson Creek 10/24-10/25/2012

About 90 students from West Linn High School joined us for their first trip to Rinearson Creek last week.  After a quick game of Riparian Metaphors with Sam(West Linn Green Team alumi 2011-12) we got to work to help repair the riparian zone around Rinearson Creek.

Mr. Bingham’s classes on Wednesday helped us to transform a section of Wilderness International’s restoration project at Meldrum Bar Park.  At 8:45am, the site was covered in blackberry.  Natives planted by volunteers last year were being choked out by invading Clematis.  Blackberry stems were intertwined, covering snowberry, and deeply rooted into the soil.  After the first class, a few snow berries were newly exposed and we could begin to see the origins of each blackberry stem.  Then we new where to dig the roots out.

Before!

After!

Mr. Hartmann’s classes battled blackberry on the other side of the creek Thursday.  Students cut blackberry and made great progress on digging roots.  Our soil is just about ready to plant some awesome native trees and shrubs that will stabilize our banks, filter toxins from the school and nearby houses, and shade out invasive species from taking over.  Not to mention, we also built quite an impressive pile of dead blackberry roots, illustrating the extent of the students’ work.

An adorable Amphibian friend even came out to check out our fantastic work.  Students got to see an Ensatina Salamander living in our soil.  After determining he/she was quite possibly the cutest Amphibian friends we’ve ever made, we put them in a safe spot out of the way of our restoration.

All in all, students had a very successful two days out at Rinearson Creek.  Thanks so much for all of your hard work!  Day 1 of enhancing Rinearson Creek’s riparian zone: accomplished.

East side green teamers reflect on their year of service-learning…

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Written by Meghan Ballard, Green Team Program Coordinator.

Students from SOLVE’s Green Teams on the East Side of the Willamette River joined together last week to share their experiences and the lessons they have learned over the past year.  Hosted at Clackamas High School, students were able to hear about each others’ research and time spent at the creek.

Matthew Collins, Education Director for Friends of Tryon Creek, joined us to talk about the importance of volunteering and how it has personally impacted his life and career choices.    Check out all of the different ways you can volunteer with Friends of Tryon Creek!

Ashley, Lindsey, Joel and Tanner from Gladstone High School started off the student presentations with information about invasive species at Rinearson Creek.  Sam and Katie joined us to represent West Linn High School and their work with stream bioengineering at Abernethy Creek. Portland Lutheran School students Lydia, Rachel, Abi and Arianna
shared their experience with the fun, slimy and smelly salmon toss on the Sandy River. Alexis, Ben, Jesse and Ryan presented on behalf of Clackamas High School and they shared some very interesting findings about their macroinvertebrate surveys of Mount Scott and Rock Creeks.  Fernanda, Kennedy, and Jake from Rex Putnam High School put together a documentary of their work this year at Boardman Wetlands. And students from the Sabin-Schellenberg Technical School gave their perspective on several tools they’ve used this year on invasive removal at Rock Creek.

Charlie(SOLVE) also introduced something new this year, the Clackamas Student Stewardship Award!  This award recognizes a special student or group of students who go above and beyond our usual tasks and contribute something extraordinary to SOLVE and the overall work we do as a Green Team program.  This year’s award was given to three outstanding art students, Chanel Karbonski, Kristy Younglove, & Ashley-Jean Gonzalez who have done AMAZING work transforming litter pulled out of Phillips Creek into beautiful and educational artwork, including the Tom McCall portrait below!

THANK YOU to all of the stellar students and teachers we have had the honor and privilege of working with this year!  It has been one of our most successful Green Team years ever and we are so glad you all were able to share it with us.

Thank you to the following sponsors, partners and friends who attended the summit and for supporting our work:

• Clackamas County Water Environment Services
• Clackamas Soil and Water Conservation District
• Oak Lodge Sanitary District
• Patrick Edwards, Portland State University
• Johnson Creek Watershed Council
• Friends of Trees
• Clackamas River Basin Council
• Friends of Tryon Creek

Amazing litter art!

Encaging West Linn at Abernethy

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Written by Jesuit Volunteer Northwest Member, Charlie

This week was West Linn’s final visit to Abernethy Creek this year. [studio audience: Awwwwwwww...] But what a glorious visit it was. Perfect weather, enthusiastic students, our task was completed: Abernethy couldn’t have asked for a better situation.

After removing invasive species, bioengineering, planting native trees and shrubs, coffee bagging, and mulching, this week’s task was to further protect some of those young, vulnerable, native plants. This time we weren’t protecting them from invasive plants like the coffee bags or drying out like the mulch, but from animals, beavers to be exact. Having beavers on our Green Team sites is a great thing. It not only tells us that our sites are inhabitable, but also the beavers add woody debris and complexity to our streams and rivers. However beavers’ favorite snack is young saplings and they sometimes have a habit of mowing down recently planted trees at our sites. Therefore we need to make beaver cages to protect the trees until they grow large enough to handle being a beaver snack. Now these aren’t cages to trap beavers or keep them in a cage, its to keep them out (unless you bend your mind and look at the whole world as the inside of the cage, sure, then we are caging beavers in). Students constructed over 50 cages out of garden fencing, and then placed them over willow and alder saplings (the beavers’ favorite snacks), and staked them down. Great job guys!

We really appreciate all of the work West Linn has done at Abernethy this year, and we at SOLVE have really enjoyed working with them to improve the watershed of Abernethy Creek!