Tuesday, September 20, 2016

BEC: Cave Dwellers traverse Padden and Connelly creeks 9/17/16

Each spring and fall, the Boys Explorers Club groups meet at the Connelly Creek service site to work to restore a section of Happy Valley Park that was used as a garbage dump for a time and that was (and, to an extent, still is) overrun by invasive, non-native plants. This abuse of the land degrades the creek that runs alongside the park, so we've been working for several years to remove Himalayan Blackberry and beat back the Reed Canary Grass that has crowded out the healthy flora along the creek. It's good work, as is obvious when you look at before and after pictures. There's more to be done, but we're making steady progress (motto: slow is fast and fast is slow).

This comes to mind because for our outing last Saturday we traversed Padden Creek from Bellingham Bay to the Connelly Creek service site (Connelly Creek feeds into Padden Creek). We mimicked the salmon that formerly traveled up the creek in greater numbers than do today, and that we hope will find their way back again in greater numbers in the not-to-distant future. Along the way, we spent time examining and discussing the daylighting project completed last year by the City of Bellingham to replace the section of the creek that had been diverted into a tunnel many years ago with an open air stream bed that will be a big part of restoring the salmon run. We thought about how our work and the city's project are complementary projects, and indeed how all things are connected (motto). When the salmon figure out they have their stream back, they'll swim up to the newly restored section of Connelly Creek! How great is that? 

We began at the beginning by checking out the estuary where Padden Creek empties into Bellingham Bay. Estuaries are critical ecosystems in which life thrives as in no other habitat. The brackish water where fresh and salt water meet and mix teems with life. For salmon, it is the place where they spend time adjusting to and from salt water, a process called smoltification.




Just like that, fall made an appearance for our outing. As we gathered, the wind gusted and it rained heavily. We were wet throughout the morning, but caught a break when the afternoon proved drier if not sunny.





Padden Creek runs through Fairhaven Park, where we took a break from our focus on its importance for the salmon to explore a little.



Oh yeah. We also played games in the park. Luckily, the rain eased enough for us to shed a layer or two.



The park shelter provided a dry spot for lunch. Several boys were unable to join us for this outing, but finding a lunch buddy was still a piece of cake...or a cheese stick, I guess.




The floor in the shelter was just slick enough for an impromptu game of drag the mentor....









New to me was the labyrinth not far from the shelter. The boys examined the star at its center and followed its maze-like pattern. A hidden gem in Fairhaven Park! 













While examining the city's daylighting project, we realized that just behind the creek was the Bellingham Co-housing community, so we talked a bit about responsible resource use and the role of an approach such as co-housing, or car sharing and the like might play in decreasing a person's impact on the land.






We finished our hike at the Connelly Creek service site where the boys were relieved to hear we weren't going to haul bark and dig out blackberry roots! Here's hoping they also were impressed by the complementary projects designed to improve the salmon run.

We took more pictures, of course. Enjoy! We next meet on Saturday, October 15th, from 10:00 'til 3:00. We'll be exploring the Rock Trail, which you'll get to via Cleator Road. This will be a significant outing for the Cave Dwellers, as a highlight of the hike is the caves in the side of the rocks to be examined. If memory serves, six explorers in a cave is the record. Outing details here.