Every October, our Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) welcomes nearly 300 AmeriCorps members to our program. During their 11-month terms, these members contribute thousands of hours of service improving Washington’s trails, green spaces, and waterways.
Although this service year is just a few months old, our 54 WCC crews around the state have hit the ground running with restoration projects ranging from environmental monitoring to accessible recreation improvements and more. Each crew is made up of five AmeriCorps members and one supervisor. Today, we’re looking at just a few of the projects our crews have made possible this fall.
Following the tides, our forage fish crew set out some of the mussel cages late into the night. Photo courtesy Emily Stevenson.
Supporting a thriving Puget Sound with Fish and Wildlife
In November, our forage fish crew ventured out on their first spike (multi-night trip) to assist the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) with an ongoing mussel watch project. The crew prepped and placed mussel cages at seven locations throughout Puget Sound, including three cages in Hansville, one on the north shore of Belfair, one in Dewatto Bay, and two near Eastsound on Orcas Island.
“Each cage was set up at the zero-foot tide line with four bags of mussels attached to the cages,” said crew member Emily Stevenson. “These nighttime adventures kept us on our toes with sinking mud, exciting wildlife, and lots of laughs.”
In a few months, the crew will retrieve the cages and send the mussels off to WDFW where biologists will assess them for key health indicators such as the presence of biotoxins, overall survivability, and mass. The results will help scientists locate pollution hot spots, understand their impact in the Puget Sound, and inform future remediation plans.
WCC members construct a wooden walkway, known as a puncheon, over a muddy stretch of ground at Mount Grant Preserve. Photo by Erika Courtney.
Blazing trails with San Juan County Conservation Land Bank
To start their service term, our Skagit County spike crew took a ferry to San Juan Island for a week of roughing in a new trail at Mount Grant Preserve. Managed by San Juan County Conservation Land Bank, the preserve is a 250-acre plot of forest and meadow with over 4.5 miles of trails for visitors to explore.
Over the course of the week, we roughed in a connector trail from the new mid-mountain parking area to the Greywacke trailhead, constructed a wooden walkway built over a wet and marshy area, installed a culvert to redirect water, transplanted 75 native sword fern and Oregon grape shrubs around the new parking area, and built 460 feet of new split rail fencing! We can't wait to see hikers get out and enjoy this new forested walk.
WCC members work together to pour soil over coir fabric in seeding test plots along the Duwamish River. Photo by Keith Gonzalez.
Learning new things with Port of Seattle
In south Seattle, our King County spike crew is seeding native grass with Port of Seattle along the bank of the Duwamish River. We visited the Duwamish River People’s Park to continue ongoing habitat restoration for Chinook salmon and community river access.
Seeding along this stretch of river is notoriously tricky as tides and rain can wash away the seeds before they become established — so our crew was able to experiment with ways to keep the seeds in place. We set up test plots (pictured above) with the seeds sandwiched between coir fabric weighed down with sandbags. Each plot used a different soil amendment mixed in with the seeds, including rice hulls, a compost mix, and soil sourced on-site. The success of these plots will help inform the best seeding tactics to use in the future.
Restoring a clearcut with Oly Ecosystems
In Olympia, our Thurston County spike crew has been making big waves at the recently conserved Cooper Crest Forest. This legacy forest once provided shaded, cool water for salmon runs in Green Cove Creek — but after being logged in 2022, the area grew hotter and drier, impacting summer instream flows into the creek. Not long after the logging, the local nonprofit organization Oly Ecosystems teamed up with the city of Olympia to complete immediate restoration throughout the 23-acre clearcut.
The Thurston County spike crew showing off their finished 60-step staircase at Cooper Crest Forest. Photo courtesy Blane Reeves.
Our local WCC crew came to the site in 2023 to support large-scale plantings of willow, alder, cedar, and sequoia (2,600 and counting!) They also mulched and removed patches of invasive blackberry and Scotch broom. This fall, we teamed up with several work-study students from The Evergreen State College to finish the construction of a stunning 60-step staircase for public use at the site.
"WCC has already provided hours of crew service through planting and invasive plant control. This new staircase will greatly help with providing access to the public where there once was a clear cut,” said crew member Blane Reeves.
Join the Corps
WCC recruits over 300 members (18-25 years old and military veterans) annually to learn hands-on skills and leadership while supporting environmental restoration and outdoor recreation projects for our partners around Washington. Applications for our 9-month term (running Jan. 16 to Sept. 5, 2024) are open now! Positions are limited, so we recommend applying right away to ensure consideration.
You can also join our email list to be notified when our next recruitment period opens and follow us on Instagram to keep up with all the projects we’re working on!