Whatcom Falls Park
Bellingham WA
Pacific Northwest
To mark the Dr. MLK Jr. Day of Service, my granddaughter Ava and I participated with 468 other local Bellingham residents as a work party at Whatcom Falls Park. The work party included volunteers of all ages, from toddlers to octogenarians. Our task for the three hour stint was to assist in the restoration and preservation of Whatcom Creek shores and its uphill drainage area.
We were assigned to the slope and adjacent area above the falls. Although salmon don’t get above the falls, the state of the embankment affects the salmon habitat in the creek below. From this falls, the creek winds several miles and meets two more falls before reaching to downtown Bellingham and Bellingham Bay. At the creek’s entrance to the bay, there is a fish hatchery which is in part the salmon’s destination, although a number escape upstream to spawn on their own between the hatchery and the large falls shown above. I described the creek and the hatchery previously.
The work was jointly organized and sponsored by the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, the City of Bellingham, and Washington Trails Association. Given that it was a grey and damp day, the organizers were anticipating about 250 volunteers. They were both delighted and dismayed when the troops kept pouring in and looking for assignments and equipment.
Although they were well organized with signs, tools and materials distributed around the park and work parties assigned, they had geared the workload to the lesser estimated number. With the large turnout, they were sure to complete all the planned restoration.
We began with our typical task for such stream restoration work parties — planting native vegetation in areas above the creek to facilitate soil and moisture retention.
Most of the volunteers were well experienced in planting the sword ferns, salal, and thimble berry bushes so it only took a half an hour plant the 40 or so plants designated for our group. Next we distributed a “donut” of mulch around each of the plants from the large pile shown above.
The group leaders also took some of the crew over to stream edge or actually, a ledge, above the waterfall shown as the lead photo and had them begin constructing cribs on the slope. The cribs were simply constructed by pounding two stakes into the slope to support logs and limbs placed on the uphill side.
This provided a buffer to slow and disperse rainwater and soil runoff such that our prodigious rains did not create eroding streamlets carrying soil directly into the creek above the falls.
Finally when the crew had finished with the hillside cribs, we took a prepared stack of logs and brush and covered up and blocked off access to those areas. When park users freelance and tromp through areas off the designated trails creating their own paths, they are referred to as “social trails.” These unplanned trails usually lead to erosion. To discourage creation and use of such social trails, the brush and logs blocked access to them and gave the new plants a chance to mature. Since this particular area was on a cliff above the waterfall, the blockage served a safety purpose as well. Falling into the creek above the falls is not likely to have a happen ending.
After the bushes were planted, cribs secured and the social trails hidden, we were essentially done with the work planned for our work area. However, we still had a large pile of mulch after surrounding each of the newly planted shrubs. So the word came down to distribute the remaining mulch anywhere it looked like it was needed and indeed we did just that.
After just two of the three allotted hours on the job we had finished the planned tasks and exhausted our supplies. Two hours is a good day’s work for me. Ava and I had time to go get a hot chocolate and some real donuts.
Finally I present a photo of one the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association’s displays to remind us why we were doing this work. Our purpose here and along all of the salmon stream restoration is to preserve clean running water in streams to enable salmon to spawn, develop and mature before leaving for the Pacific ocean to mature, grow and return. Their return completes their life cycle after they spawn and give their bodies up as nutrients to seed the next cycle.
What happened in your Community on MLK Service Day or any other service day for that matter?