PENINSULA DAILY NEWS for Sunday, February 9, 2014 SECTION
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JUDE RUBIN (2)
Grace Webb (right in 2009, above this year), a current Swan School fourth-grader, began planting trees as a kindergartner.
up Volunteers, new and old, plant 3,000 trees at Tarboo Creek PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
To help establish conifers in areas with reed canary grass, PORT TOWNSEND — Volunvolunteers planted cedar and teers from five schools jumped spruce in hollow log sections and out of bed and into their mud planter boxes. boots last weekend to plant 3,000 The logs were donated by the native trees and shrubs along Port Townsend Paper Co. Tarboo Creek during the ninth Cardboard, donated by Kapannual Plant-A-Thon. stone Paper in Longview, was The 150 children, parents, used to cover the reed canary grandparents and teachers grass before planting willow planted the trees during a daylong through it. work party Feb. 1, said Jude Rubin, director of stewardship at Growing up planting trees the Port Townsend-based NorthFamilies have developed their west Watershed Institute, which own traditions around Plant-Acoordinates the annual event. More than 133,000 trees have Thon, Rubin said. Swan School fourth-grade stubeen planted in the Tarboo Valley since 2004 to improve conditions dent Grace Webb had planted trees at every Plant-A-Thon since for salmon and wildlife. Of those, more than 31,000 — kindergarten with help from her grandmother, Barbara Allen. about 25 percent — have been This year, her grandmother planted by volunteers through was home sick. the Plant-A-Thon, Rubin said. “She really wanted to be here, “Getting these kids involved in a day of giving back to Mother so I’m going to plant a tree for her this year,” Grace said. Nature is uplifting. It is always Tiffany and David Drewry one of my favorite days of the brought the whole family. year,” said Lucy Congdon Han“It’s our ninth Plant-A-Thon,” son, a Swan School parent who said Tiffany, who has attended provided the artwork for the the event while pregnant and 2012 tree card, sold in conjunclater with her youngest of three tion with the Plant-A-Thon. children, Grayson, in a baby She attended with her husband, Charlie Hanson, a six-time backpack. “There is no way we crew leader, and their daughters. would miss it.” Educators and administrators arrived with shovels in hand to Tarboo conservation spend their Saturday off with The Plant-A-Thon is part of students. the overall Tarboo Watershed Teacher Karen Akins and Program. Russ Yates, director of Swan The watershed institute and School, enjoy a special tradition 40 groups and landowners are of organizing the parking and working to restore and protect sign-in before they head out to the entire Tarboo Creek stream plant trees. system, from its headwaters to “I just love getting to greet Tarboo-Dabob Bay. everybody as they come in,” said “This was NWI’s most chalYates at the end of the day. This year, a group of 24 high lenging volunteer project yet,” said Peter Bahls, executive direc- school students from Chimacum Pi Program and Jefferson Comtor of the watershed institute.
munity School, as well as Port Townsend High School Students For Sustainability, served as youth crew leaders, with support from 12 adult crew leaders. Crew leader Dylan Nichol, a sophomore at the University of Puget Sound, returned from college for his fourth year as a crew leader and ninth year participating in the event.
Tree cards The planting is also a fundraiser for the JCS and Pi, Swan School and Port Townsend School District’s Opportunity, Community, Experience, Academics and Navigation Program, known as
the OCEAN Program. For each tree they plant, students sell a corresponding “tree card” for $10 to family and friends. The person who buys it in turn sends it to honor someone special. The tree cards, created this year by Port Townsend artist Don Tiller, are sent worldwide. Grants from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Patagonia clothing company, as well as donations from local supporters, pay for the trees and supplies, so all of the funds raised through the sale of tree cards go to support local schools. “Although the seedlings were put in the ground on Saturday, people are still welcome to spon-
sor the remaining trees to help schools meet their fundraising goals,” said Kit Pennell, science teacher and Plant-A-Thon coordinator for the Pi Program. “I regularly use them in place of sympathy cards when friends lose a loved one.” Honorary tree cards are available at participating schools and at http://tinyurl.com/pdntreecards. Also, Tiller’s original painting, “Thriving Watershed,” is being sold to support the program. To view the painting, contact the artist at 360-379-5450 or don@dontiller.com. TURN
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CECILIA BAHLS
ABOVE: Anna Molotsky and Ayden Ratliff install a plant protector around one of the thousands of trees planted at last Saturday’s annual Plant-A-Thon. Both are students in the Port Townsend School District’s OCEAN Program.
SHELLY MURNEY
LEFT: About 150 students, parents and teachers from five local schools planted 3,000 trees at the ninth annual Plant-A-Thon sponsored by Northwest Watershed Institute. Twentyfour high school students served as youth crew leaders.