Soccer introduced Doris Yepez to Black River Riparian Forest. She found the 93-acre city-owned forest just off Oakesdale Avenue Southwest on a short walk from her daughter’s soccer practice.
“I was really awed,” says Highlands resident Yepez, 57. “Here was this beautiful area in the middle of Renton and an industrial area.”
Yepez immediately noticed the forest’s abundance of Scotch broom and blackberries, and the environmental studies graduate knew she needed to help.
“Because I had done restoration I saw the potential for restoration,” Yepez says. “I said, ‘Someday I would like to work here … but I have no idea how I’m going to.’”
A Washington State University (WSU) King County Extension class helped Yepez get started. Called the Watershed Stewardship Program, the nine-week class teaches people how to care for area watersheds.
“We’re providing an educated volunteer base,” says Tara Zimmerman, course facilitator.
Class training covers many watershed aspects, including hydrology, soils, wildlife and how to manage volunteers. Speakers are from WSU, King County government, nonprofits or other agencies. The class is Fridays, with a handful of Saturday field trips to local parks, rivers and wetlands.
Some people enroll without a project, but with simply the desire to help. Others have a specific project they would like to start, or have already started.
Yepez was one of those others. She received a $28,350 King County grant in 2004 and had begun working with county officials and others to restore a 3/4 acre section of Black River Riparian Forest.
Yepez enrolled in the Watershed Stewardship Program in spring 2005. She had done previous restoration work — on Olympia-area glacial prairies — but knew little about water-
sheds like Black River.
“I wanted to learn more about watersheds,” Yepez says. “My focus was more on prairies. I didn’t feel like I knew a lot about streams, and I here I was beginning my work at Black River. Even though I was networking I didn’t feel as knowledgeable about stream restoration. I decided to take the course to increase my knowledge.”
The course certainly increased Yepez’s knowledge.
“It was a phenomenal education,” she says. “On all different kinds of issues: forests, rivers, mountains — everything under the sun.”
Yepez’s Black River group went on to work in that 3/4 of an acre section, replacing invasive plants with native trees and shrubs. Workers also mended the section’s soil and installed a drip-irrigation system. That project lasted from 2004 to 2007. Yepez and her team of workers then did similar restoration of a 1/2-acre section of Black River Riparian Forest. That work — funded by a $20,340 King County grant — began in 2006, and continues today.
Yepez saw Black River’s animals increase during both projects.
“As we were doing the projects we saw more creatures — snakes and voles and ducks and butterflies,” she says.
The projects also educated Yepez’s helpers about the forest and its many inhabitants, including the largest great blue heron colony in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties.
“A lot of these people never knew about Black River, never knew about the herons,” Yepez says. “They get connected to the environment. They get excited about it and want to do more. That’s the part that I love.”
The Watershed Stewardship Program motivated Yepez to increase her environmental education outreach. She began hosting free field trips to Black River with King County’s Wheels to Water program in 2005. Nearly 2,000 students from 25 King County schools have since toured the Black River Riparian Forest and King County’s nearby South Wastewater Treatment Plant. The field trips even include restoration work.
“I love that out of everything I do,” Yepez says of the field trips. “Restoration work is interesting, but working with students … the kids are phenomenal.”
Yepez hosts the field trips through the Black River Watershed Alliance, a nonprofit she started in August 2005.
Yepez’s newest project is called SWAN, which stands for Stewards of the Wetland by Area Neighbors. The wetland is a 7-8 acre wooded area near the corner of Southeast 128th Street and 164th Avenue Southeast in the Highlands. The neighbors are CARE, an organization originally formed to protect the neighborhood from the crush of development. Yepez is managing SWAN with Debi Eberle, who is currently enrolled in the Watershed Stewardship Program.
The SWAN wetland is a former peat bog, currently containing a beaver dam. The wetland is tangled with invasive plants like blackberries and Japanese knotweed and contains creatures — like the beavers — in need of protection. But the aim of the restoration work is also human-focused, since the bog has caused flooding near nearby homes and a gas station.
“It’s not just to save the wetlands, but also to help neighbors with flooding issues,” Yepez says.
Yepez says King County has shown interest in helping curb the flooding, and also in funding restoration work. She has also heard from many people and organizations eager to help. Yepez expects to start on the SWAN wetland in about a month.
Watershed Stewardship Program facilitator Tara Zimmerman says she gets other attendees like Yepez, active in habitat restoration. Other students use knowledge from the class to write for homeowners association newsletters. Still others become salmon watchers or move onto volunteer programs. The executive directors of two local organizations — Friends of the Cedar River Watershed and Seattle Tilth — took the Watershed Stewardship Program, as did Burien mayor Joan McGilton.
“Overall the training has been really well-received, and also well-regarded among presenters and other folks,” Zimmerman says.
The Watershed Stewardship Program started 18 years ago, and during those 18 years it has churned out numerous university-educated stewards of our watersheds.
“There’s a need in the county for protecting our natural resources, for protecting our watersheds,” Zimmerman says. “Legislation and laws can’t do it all. Leaving it up to regulations isn’t
going to fix the problems. This is really just tapping into interested community members who want to make a difference, and want to make a positive impact on their community.”
Yepez is one of those community members.
“I have a real special, deep connection and appreciation for the environment,” she says.
“The environment and caring for the environment is one of my passions,” she adds.
Emily Garland can be reached at emily.garland@reporternewspapers.com or (425) 255-3484, x. 5052.
