Spring Newsletter - Keri Pravitz, Our New Executive Director Digs In!

Get Involved with Your Watershed Community!

Greetings!

New FCRW Executive Director Digs In

By Keri Pravitz

Keri Pravitz Getting Right to Work on the Cedar River

Engage, enhance, sustain, restore, educate and steward. These are not only the key words in our mission statement, but they are the core of what we do at Friends of the Cedar River Watershed and why I am excited to be here as the new Executive Director. As a lifelong believer in community engagement and social responsibility, I have focused my life and my work on connecting people to make our community a better place.

Read More >

Do you have a question for Keri? Want to introduce yourself

Contact her at keri@cedarriver.org / 206.297.8141

Earth Month Activities in the Watershed

By Amy Kaeser

Happy volunteers after a day of planting

Volunteers Having Fun after Planting Trees in the Sun

We're gearing up for Earth Month by hosting volunteer events throughout April. Join us to improve the health of the Cedar River / Lake Washington Watershed for people, fish, and wildlife. The success of restoration sites around the watershed depends on the hard work and support of volunteers just like you!

Be a part of potting hundreds of native trees and shrubs, or maybe removing acres of invasive plants, mulching disturbed sites to suppress yards of weeds, and planting a few hundred streamside emergent plants. Come out, get dirty, make some new friends, and make a difference!

Earth Month Saturday Projects

Habitat Restoration at Log Cabin Natural Area, Mirrormont

April 6 ~ 9:00am - 1:00pm

Potting at the King County Greenhouse, Maple Valley

April 13 ~ 9:00am - 1:00pm

Reclaiming the Education Center for Native Plants, North Bend

April 20 ~ 9:00am - 3:00pm

*Includes FREE guided watershed tours!

Habitat Restoration at Cavanaugh Pond Natural Area, Renton

April 27 ~ 9:00am - 1:00pm

Restoring an Urban Forest at Madrona Woods, Seattle

April 27 ~ 10:00am - 2:00pm

Contact amy@cedarriver.org / 206.297.8141 to sign up today!

Building Partnerships by Meeting Needs

By Rebecca Sayre

As 2013 moves into spring, FCRW is working to ensure that we offer needed restoration services in communities throughout our watershed. Time and again it has been made clear to us that communities, partner organizations, and volunteer groups, both large and small, need help recruiting volunteers and additional technical support to complete and monitor local restoration projects. We are filling a niche by partnering with cities and other jurisdictions to help with identified restoration projects using King Conservation District assessment funds and other funding sources to provide technical support. By working together strategically we leverage habitat restoration efforts throughout the broader watershed.

"Urban forests like Yarrow Point's Morningside Park are commonly plagued by infestations of invasive plants like English Ivy. FCRW has a good track record of working with communities to effectively tackle these problems. We look forward to working together to bring our park
to a more natural state."

- John McGlenn, Chair, Yarrow Point Park Board

A great example of this is our Hunts and Yarrow Point collaboration on May 18th between 10am and 2pm. Future projects include collaborations with Seattle Parks and Recreation in Southeast Seattle and the City of Sammamish at Sammamish Landing.

If you are interested in learning more about how we can bring resources and volunteers to a project in your community, contact rebecca@cedarriver.org / 206.297.8141

Confessions of a Volunteer Addict

By Rebecca Sayre

Pedro, a Man Who Will Fight for his Adopted Watershed

I had the opportunity to chat with one of our fantastic volunteers the other Saturday while winding our way up to a reforestation site on Taylor Mountain. He explained how he feels he is making a difference by planting trees. How do you plan to make a difference this year? Can we count on you to make a difference by volunteering or donating to support FCRW today?

Pedro Checkos believes that a good volunteer experience can spur societal change one person at a time. Volunteering at FCRW Habitat Restoration events every Saturday for the last few months has provided him the opportunity to put his values into action. Thanks to 1,580 volunteers and supporters like Pedro, we got 10,340 native plants in the ground and nearly 30 acres were restored in 2012.

Pedro explains what brings him back to this restoration work time and again. "I volunteer with FCRW to connect to nature, to feel useful. I find that planting trees is peaceful." Upon further reflection, he added, "It is hard when the alarm goes off at 7:30am to get up and prepare to go outside, but I have become a volunteer addict. When you do something good, where the people are friendly, it makes you feel so good to be a part of that story."