Here is an update on the altruistic efforts of Edmonds students from our fearless AmeriCorps leader, Dr. Thomas Murphy! It looks like they had a blast mucking about in the dirt for a worthy cause.
Edmonds Community College Students Rescue Lyon Creek
On Friday, April 13, eleven Edmonds Community College (ECC) students of Environmental Anthropology are going to team up with the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation staff to restore 500 feet of stream corridor on Lyon Creek, a small salmon that flows from Mountlake Terrace to Lake Washington.
“It’ll be cool says AASF Technician Walter Rung who completed the ECC class two years ago. “The college students will get to see a fish habitat problem, act on a designed solution and totally transform the site in one day.” ECC’s Environmental Anthropology program headed is headed Thomas Murphy. Under his tutelage, students learn about negative human impacts on the environment and take actions to counter those impacts.
“This stream project will involve some blood, sweat, and maybe a few tears.,” adds AASF Director Tom Murdoch. “First, the students will be removing thick stands of blackberries, old concrete and other human caused debris. Next, they will plant several hundred desirable native trees and shrubs. Then, they will place mulch around the new streamside vegetation. On Saturday, everyone is going to be a bit sore.”
Lyon Creek is a small salmon stream in an urban area. It has generally poor water quality. Also, during the summer, the water temperature in the stream often rises to lethal levels for salmon and trout due to lack of shade around the creek. “Salmon and trout need cool water averaging around 55 degrees Fahrenheit,” says Senior Ecologist Tom Hardy. “When the temperature rises, water loses its ability to hold oxygen…if the oxygen levels get too low, salmon and trout suffocate and go belly up.” This effort will combat that problem.
This stream restoration project is one of 12 that the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation is doing in the Lyon Creek watershed thanks to a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology Centennial Clean Water Fund.
Date: April 10, 2007
From: The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation (AASF); NW Stream Center 600-128th Street SE, Everett, WA 98208 (www.streamkeeper.org)
Contacts:
Tom Murdoch, AASF Director - 425-316-8592 (at the NW Stream Center)
Tom Hardy, AASF Fish & Wildlife Mgr. - 425-316-8592
Walter Rung, AASF Technician - 425-328-6095 (cell phone at Lyon Creek site)
Thomas Murphy, ECC Director of Anthropology – 425-640-1076
Event: Stream Restoration – Lyon Creek
Time/Locations/Activities:
9:00 AM to 10:15 - NW Stream Center, 600 128th Street SE, Everett WA 98208. Student watershed/project briefing, plant and equipment packing, travel to Lyon Creek site.
10:15 AM to 4:00 PM – Carrie Lewith Home, 19055 35th Ave NE, Lake Forest Park, WA 98155.
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Author William Dietritch, who in 1990 won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, exhorted Edmonds staff and students to fully appreciate Earth Month during a lecture held in the Triton Union Building, at 12:30 pm today. The hour went quickly as Dietritch read aloud excerpts from his various non/fiction publications and described his impact on the American consciousness through environmental journalism. |
| Dietritch began his insidious assault on eco-indifference with an exuberant description of the jellyfish, which he called a “hallucination”; his lyrical analogies of the sea-beastie (whose litheness he compared to the “undulations of an exotic dancer”) were enough to take the sting out of any unpleasant memories that an unwary swimmer might harbor. Satisfied that he had captured our attention, Dietritch embarked on a meandering journey through his personal history–from local boy at the crossroads of social revolution to Neiman Fellow at Harvard, Seattle Times journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner, to his present occupation as a freelancer and professor at Western Washington University–interspersed with startling biological facts about humans and the world we inhabit. He began by reading from one of his three nonfiction books: Natural Grace. In it, we were introduced to Coyote, Raccoon, Crow, and Possum as Warner Bros. and many Northwest Native traditions intended: crafty (and anthropomorphized) little buggers who thrive in our manufactured jungle because they–unflatteringly–bear so many traits reminiscent of humankind. Dietritch concluded with a snippet from his epilogue, where humans were compared (truthfully be also unflatteringly) to a virus, wholly dependent on other living organisms to thrive, and continually in danger of fatally draining their hosts’ resources. After having humorously denigrated our entire species, the author carried on by demonstrating his fluency in local environmental concerns and campaigns, borrowing sections from an essay he contributed to On Puget Sound. |
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What I remember most distinctly about this sample of writing was the melody of sorrow, as the beauties of the Pacific Northwest are exquisitely drawn out then brutally defaced by the population explosion on its banks. Dietritch gentled shaded in the triumphs of nature above and below the waters of the Puget Sound before erasing them with the harsh whining of pleasure-crafts and other manmade vessels “boiling” on the surface of the Sound. This vignette left me feeling vaguely mournfully and fleetingly panicked. All marks of an evocative writer. |
| William Dietritch ended on a curious note, yanking the audience away from the ravished gems of nature to the looted treasures of the Pharaohs with his latest novel: Napoleon’s Pyramids. Dietritch explained that Napoleon’s naive attempt to invade Egypt in 1798, ostensibly to “liberate” the Egyptians from their pre-existing form of government and consequentially enrich himself, mirrors America’s present-day quagmire of Iraq. Whatever his subject, Dietritch proved to be an adept writer and a speaker with the patience and credibility common to teachers everywhere. Accolades aside, I’m honestly thinking about picking up his last book; it sounds like a good read. |
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Edmonds Community College students (like me and the rest of you fortunate souls) can thank the Convergence Writers Series committee members: Jim O’Donnell, Nancy Kennedy, Greg VanBelle, Marcia Woodard, and Holly Hughes for inviting William Dietritch to our modest TUB 202. And, of course, Mr. Dietritch himself for accepting their invitation!
They are also responsible for the upcoming talk by Linda Lyshall on the 19th and the oodles of environmentally-geared exhibits available to students in the intervening days. I plan to experience as many as my schedule will permit.
My old classmate and fellow volunteer, HELP Club Secretary and founding member Johnny Robins, wrote a delightful vignette about the Interfaith Shelter cleanup last Saturday. Full time AmeriCorps member Kimberley Morgan has volunteered with this shelter for years!
I noticed, while volunteering last Saturday, that trees do not say thank you when you have volunteered your time, but people do. Several people told me thank you last Saturday and made me feel like the time I spent volunteering was worthwhile. Most of the projects that HELP Club has engaged in deal with outdoor native growth revitalization, so it was a welcome change of pace when the group decided to volunteer at the Interfaith Shelter in Everett last week. We were able to see, firsthand, the people that our volunteer efforts were benefitting when we served lunch and hid candy filled plastic eggs for the children.
Interfaith Shelter is a place for families that have become homeless to stay while they stabilize their lives. Families can stay from 90-120 days while parents find work and a dwelling. While at the shelter several programs help adults find employment and assistance, while children are able to have tutors that help with their homework nightly. With the shelter’s assistance families can find the tools they need to clear their way.
Saturday’s event started with donations from the campus community, local grocers, Panera Bread and the efforts of volunteers in the weeks before the event. Hours were spent soliciting donations, stuffing candy in plastic eggs and cooking food for lunch. Volunteers arrived at 10am to prepare lunch for 45 people. The effort was rewarded when we all sat down, volunteers and families, and ate lunch together. After lunch was over the children rushed the yard where the eggs where hidden while parents and volunteers watched and smiled. After 30 minutes of frantic searching for eggs the children where presented with with baskets of toys, candy, and toiletries while the parents where given laundry baskets, toiletries and other goodies.
This brings us to the ‘thank you’. When someone looks at you and tells you they are thankful, and really means it, you feel pretty good. It does not take much to spend a couple of hours helping another peson, but it can feel pretty rewarding when they express their gratitude. I reccomend everybody try it. If you would like to be added to the HELP Club email list just let me know at johnny.robbins@edcc.edu.
~~Johnny
