Celebrate Spring by Planting Trees and Shrubs at Clark Creek Park on Saturday

You're tired of meetings and policy, right? It's Spring and sunny!  Why not celebrate by planting things?

Friends of Trees is holding another planting session at Clark Creek Park on Saturday the 22nd.

Clark Creek Park in February 2014 snow storm

Last fall they ripped out the invasives in preparation for

Our Green Space Initiative program will be coordinating two events at Clark Creek Park to plant native trees and shrubs along the creek to provide shade over this prominent south Salem stream. For our first event in December, we will focus on planting larger trees in areas previously dominated by Himalayan blackberry immediately next to the creek, as well as up to two dozen trees in the upland areas of the park. Our spring event will be oriented towards filling in the riparian zone with bareroot native trees and shrubs. We will also be working with nearby private property owners in the Morningside neighborhood - both upstream and downstream from our restoration site - offering free invasive species control and native plants.

It wasn't pretty - but it wasn't supposed to be!

Clark Creek in November 2013, after the blackberry and ivy carnage

The first planting session got rained out, but the rescheduled one seems to have included a kind of Willamette Valley Ponderosa that likes wet feet!

Clark Creek big plantings in February 2014 snow storm,
including some Willamette Valley Ponderosa, I believe

According to Carol Savonen's column in the paper last month:

The Willamette Valley race of ponderosa pine grows where other pines brought in from other areas don’t — in standing water, on dry knobs and among grazing livestock. These pines are surprisingly well-adapted the Willamette Valley’s combination of wet winter soils and hot, dry summers. Their deep taproots give them a staunch foundation, so the tree is rarely toppled by wind or snow, unlike many of the exotic pines that fell during our last round of winter storms.

Learning about this one day was pretty neat.

The event details:

Please arrive around 8:45am to be registered and assigned to a crew. The planting will start promptly at 9:00am. We provide breakfast snacks and hot chocolate/coffee, as well as gloves, tools and guidance. Please come dressed for the weather and wearing sturdy shoes and get ready to have fun!

This planting is in partnership with the City of Salem.

RSVPs are kindly requested for groups of more than 5 people - click HERE to do so. Please contact Jenny or Ian at (503) 595-0213 if you have any questions or need more information.

Clark Creek Park is at 755 Ratcliff Drive SE, and is part of a key low-traffic bikeway in between 12th Street and Commercial between the Morningside and McKinley neighborhoods.

Tier 1 bikeway goes through Clark Creek Park

(There are other neighborhood tree planting projects too.)