Winter 2014-2015

Cyndi Smith pauses while planting plants to help stablize a steep hillside that we 'de-blackberried'.
Our neighbors Bill & Alison donated this wonderful Douglas fir. We found a nice home for it.
Just before winter's end, we removed the last of the blackberries in the wetland. Hooray!
The area cleared by the Day of Caring crew in September 2014 is making a rapid recovery, as demonstrated by several sprouting skunk cabbages.

Spring 2015

With most of the blackberries gone, our attention shifted to removing English ivy.
The youth group spent an afternoon weeding an area along the street...
...And then planting some flowers. Nicely done!
We also began digging up waste concrete from the south hill, apparently dumped there when the building was built in 1968.

Day of Caring 2015

We are so thankful to have yet another crew from Microsoft come and help!
One of the two focus areas this year was weeding and planting on the north hillside.
The crew made great progress!
The other focus area was creating a more-visible walking trail on the east hillside, outside the back door of the church.

EarthCorps 2015

We hired EarthCorps to remove the blackberries and other invasives from the steep ravine by the main driveway.
I guess we didn't work the crew too hard since they were smiling!
They did a fantastic job! The erosion control fabric is a big help on a slope this steep.
After their first session in early September, EarthCorps returned in late October and finished removing invasives from the rest of the ravine. It looks great!