They are restoring nature to what it once was.
This is what a group of volunteers hopes to accomplish on a 1.5-acre site adjoining South Whidbey Tilth Market.
At the same time, they want to teach people visiting the market a few things about living with and being sensitive to the natural world around them.
When the Tilth Farmer’s Market moved to the Thompson Road site from Bayview three years ago, it inherited a site that once was a forest. Adjacent to the market site, which is a field that was clear cut decades go, the former forest is now a sparse stand of tall, thin conifers growing out of an expanse of long grass.
“It had been parked out,” said Michael Seraphinoff, a Tilth member who is leading a reforestation project on the acreage. “First the largest and the oldest trees were cut for lumber. Next bulldozers scraped away the fragile understory plants as well as the loam topsoil. Finally non-native grasses were planted.”
Over the past two years, Seraphinoff and other volunteers have been working to give the plot of forest a different look. A lot of the grass is gone now, replaced with compost, mulch and tree needles. There are small, new plants growing there too, many with the shiny, dark, waxy leaves that are so common on native Northwest species.
With funding from a two-year, $7,000 grant from United State Department of Agriculture’s Research Education Program, Seraphinoff and his band of volunteers are working to restore the land to its original state.
The plan is to remove all the non-native plants and grasses, then re-introduce native species.
The project began in summer 2001 when Seraphinoff and volunteers began cutting and digging up blackberry bushes, and mulching small areas under the surviving trees with woodchips and cardboard. During the fall of 2001 volunteers began weeding the mulched areas, and this spring the group began planting the first native pants.
Volunteers Cleveland Hall, Barbara Kolar, Mark Fessler and Anna Peterson are planting about 50 native species including ferns, huckleberries, salal and red flowering currant. Design help for the area came from Langley landscaper Fran Abel, Greenbelt Consulting and Frosty Hollow Ecological Restoration
To stay within the small budget afforded by the grant money, the group has had to beg, borrow and, when necessary, buy plants for the project. One of the major sources of plant material is development.
Seraphinoff said he and his group is asking island land developers to give them a call before the bulldoze or build. It’s an idea he picked up from Snohomish County, where about 18,000 plants a year are salvaged from building sites.
In turn, Seraphinoff said he hopes the Tilth reforestation project becomes a model for people who want to restore their property to a more natural state
“Yards with native plants are less labor intensive, and it’s a nice thing to do for wildlife,” he said
It is also something we can do to make for a greener future.
“I am excited about this project for the future,” he said. “When I’am 80 years old, I hope to hobble out here and enjoy the forest I helped to restore.”
The restoration project is intended to be a demonstration area for reclaiming island woodlands. Visitors to the Tilth Farmer’s Market this summer will be able to learn about the project and will be encouraged to take a tour.
