10-17-09 Duwamish Alive!
The sky opened up and let loose this morning, as if to let us know that it is, in fact, time to start planting. Despite the impressive downpour, 118 brave and wonderful souls came out to the Duwamish Alive! event that we co-hosted with EarthCorps. This large group of volunteers was split into five different sections and spread out around our 16th and Brandon site, just north of South Seattle Community College. 
We spent the morning grubbing out Himalayan blackberry to the sounds of Ben Smith on the clarinet and drum, and Ben Yarges on the shakuhachi (Japanese flute). The Bens, or Ben-squared as we affectionately referred to them, wandered around the site for most of the work party serenading our hard workers, and they even got some Nature Consortium staff to jam with them. Later in the day, Nancy, our Executive Director, stood out in the rain with an umbrella to shelter fiddle player James Lucal, and Jim Kanodle roamed about with his trumpet.
Every so often the rain let up, but most people were drenched by lunchtime and sought refuge under the canopies by the trailhead. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our group had decreased only slightly after lunch ended and these dedicated folks were excited to put some native plants in the ground. The last hour and a half of the event was spent placing Doug firs, salal, vine maples, thimbleberry, and other plants around the work site and then making new homes for them. At the end of the work party, we had put 280 plants in the ground and had grubbed out 26,100sq.ft. of Himalayan blackberry!
