Small Town News

Volunteers gather for Union River restoration project

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On a dreary day last week at the Irene Davis Union River Preserve, volunteers from the Cascade Land Conservancy and the community gathered to plant trees and remove weeds from a portion of the historic 57-acre site.

The six volunteers represented one of the lowest volunteer turnouts the Conservancy has ever seen.

"We'd hoped more people would come, but it's awfully wet and cool today," said Nicole Hill, the Conservancy's conservation director for Mason County.

The group is working to restore the property, which used to be an old farmstead, but in the last decade or so has really been "in secession," Hill said.

The Conservancy purchased the property in 2006 and named it after the late Irene Davis, a local community activist who worked hard for the Union River Watershed and wrote The History of Belfair and the Tahuya Peninsula 1880-1940. Her son-in-law, Ken VanBuskirk, volunteered at the event.

When they first opened the reserve, there were a lot more volunteers in attendance, VanBuskirk said. He doesn't know what's happened to change that.

The volunteers planted native hemlock, western red cedar and Oregon ash trees, "trees that like to get their feet wet," Hill said. Contractors were hired to remove the invasive, non-native blackberry and canary grass.

The Conservancy is hoping to attract more volunteers for its next event in March.

"With these volunteer events, we wanted to create a community feel," said Elsa Sargent, a Cascade Land Conservancy staff member working with land stewardship. "We want people to have some ownership and to come help out and feel like they're contributing ... It's always an on-going project, and there's always more that can be done."



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© 2010 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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