Cedar River Stewardship in Action

07/10/2019

It's fall and you know that that means - salmon are back and spawning in the Cedar River! Healthy riverside forests help to provide critical habitat for spawning salmon by increasing canopy cover, which keeps the water cool and helps to provide food sources for insects that salmon feed on. Join us this Saturday, October 12th, to help care for the forest at Ron Regis Park.

To RSVP, email [email protected]

For more info, visit: https://forterra.org/event/reforesting-ron-regis-park-191012

19/06/2019

Garlic mustard -- have you heard of it?

It's an incredibly aggressive invasive w**d found all over the country, including along the Cedar River. A single garlic mustard plant can produce almost 1,000 seeds per year, that remain viable in the ground for at least 10 years. You do the math -- that's a lot of w**ds! They also produce chemicals in the soil that inhibit the growth of other plants, allowing garlic mustard to out-compete many of our native plants.

Garlic mustard is bad for our river-side ecosystems, and so we're working hard to minimize outbreaks. Here is King County's Riparian Noxious W**d team removing garlic mustard from along the Cedar River last week!

If you want to learn more about garlic mustard, and what to do if you find it on your property visit the King County Noxious W**ds site.
https://www.kingcounty.gov/services/environment/animals-and-plants/noxious-w**ds/w**d-identification/garlic-mustard.aspx

📸: Sara Price - King County Noxious W**d Specialist

14/06/2019

There's lots to celebrate in June -- and the orca is certainty one of them. For this we want to highlight ways we can all help the orcas. The work we do along the Cedar River helps to create healthy, robust salmon populations for our resident orcas to eat -- but there are many other actions you can take to help these majestic beasts.

Here are two posts with expert advice on what you can do to help! 🌊

https://forterra.org/editorial/9-ways-to-help-orcas-now

https://www.greenseattle.org/orca-action-month/

Earlier this summer, we watched in disbelief as the orca mother, Tahlequah, carried her dead calf for 17 days. Puget Sound orcas are struggling. From disrupted habitats, food source shortages, and poor water quality, the impacts humans have had on our regions' orcas are staggering.

11/06/2019

Although we've been able to remove miles and miles of knotw**d along the Cedar River, it's not gone. Knotw**d is a major problem in King County and we need all hands on deck to get rid of it. This non-native, noxious w**d chokes out native vegetation, increases erosion, degrades water quality and hurts habitat for fish and wildlife. It can also damage roads, pipes and building foundations.

Join King County Noxious W**ds for their Knotw**d Control Workshops. They will be hosting 3 classes:
June 12 - Mercer Island Community and Event Center
June 19 - Covington Library
June 26 - Fall City Library

Schedule of workshops and classes on identification and control of knotw**d species in King County, Washington offered by the King County Noxious W**d Control Program

05/06/2019

Happy Wednesday, fellow Cedar River enthusiasts!

Hopefully you’ve been lucky enough to see spawning salmon along the Cedar River. The Cedar River is a vital component in the journey of our local salmonid species, including three of the most threatened species here in Washington, Coho, Chinook, and Sockeye. However, primarily as the result of booming urban growth in the region, our salmon populations are struggling to survive. Local agencies and organizations are trying to determine the best ways to help. Projects that improve and repair healthy salmon habitat are crucial in their recovery.

Salmon rely on shaded, slow moving portions of river to reproduce and mature. Often these areas are found in small channels and ponds connected to the river via its floodplain. In 2012, King County began a project along the Cedar River to do just that – reconnect the Cedar River to its floodplain. Not only will this project provide high quality salmon habitat, but it will help to buffer the impacts of flooding to residents living along the Cedar.

Cavanaugh pond, a previous gravel mine converted into a 14 acre pond in the 1970s, is less than 50 meters from the Cedar River on the left bank. However, a levee currently blocks the connectivity between the Cedar River and Cavanaugh Pond. This project, known as the Riverbend Levee Setback and Floodplain Restoration project, will connect 52 acres of floodplain along about 1 mile of the river just East of Renton in Unincorporated King County. This will be made possible, in part, by removing sections of the levee that currently cut off connectivity with adjacent floodplain, and by raising the bottom of Cavanaugh pond to be the same level as the river. We are excited to watch this project come to fruition, and look forward to seeing improved salmon habitat in this portion of the Cedar River.

Click the link below to watch a video made by the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks describing the details of this project.

https://vimeo.com/277177875

21/05/2019

On Saturday we had another beautiful morning of work at Ron Regis Park! Our hard-working volunteers saved over 200 baby plants from being outcompeted by aggressive jewel-w**d, unearthed some of the largest blackberry root balls we've ever seen, and had so much fun doing it.

Special shoutout to EvergreenTreez for bringing out their whole crew, and for the post-work river BBQ.

Sad you missed out on all the fun? Mark your calendars now - join us on July 27th for our next Cedar River volunteer work party!

11/05/2019

We just visited Ron Regis park to prepare for our volunteer event there next Saturday, and the river is looking as beautiful as ever! However, the hundreds of baby plants we planted at our last couple volunteer events are in serious danger of being out-competed by aggressive invasive w**ds -- and they need your help!

Come join us next Saturday (May 18th) from 9am - noon for a morning of restoration fun right along the Cedar River. Click the link below for more information about the event.

https://forterra.org/event/restore-the-river-at-ron-regis-park-in-renton05182019

Want to join? Email [email protected] to RSVP.

19/02/2019

Check out these beautiful maps by Hungarian cartographer, Robert Szucs. They show watersheds around the world, including our little piece -- Washington State!

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-worlds-watersheds-mapped-in-gorgeous-detail?rebelltitem=7

21/10/2018

THANK YOU so much to our fabulous volunteers today! They got 150 plants into the ground at Ron Regis Park in record time, and made huge headway clearing blackberry along the river. Also thank you to Alicia from the Seattle Aquarium for coming out to talk to us about the salmon. It’s not too late to see spawning salmon along the cedar river, go see for yourself!

Interested in joining the fun? Check back soon for the 2019 cedar river restoration at Ron Regis park dates.

17/10/2018

A big thank you to our WCC crew who planted 1000 native plants at Ron Regis Park yesterday!

You can be part of the fun too - join us this Sunday to plant native trees and shrubs that will grow into a future healthy forest! We'll see salmon spawning in the river, and will be joined by a naturalist from Seattle Aquarium to learn all about the journey the salmon have taken to get there.

Details at www.forterra.org/event/reforesting-ron-regis-park-181021

31/07/2018

Thank you so much for coming out Saturday, such a large group we had! We pulled w**ds and blackberries and watered our juvenile plants on these very hot days when they wouldn’t have otherwise received water. We had helping hands from Scouts, families with children, solo volunteers, and even dogs. A big help you were! Come back on October 21st for our next clean up.

Your local park and the Cedar River thanks you!