It looks like hard, cold work, but everyone always comes away with warm smiles and new friendships.
That’s what Sunrise O’Mahoney, executive director of the nonprofit Vancouver Watersheds Alliance, reports about the agency’s regular work parties along Burnt Bridge Creek.
Planting trees and yanking invasive ivy is crucial to the health of that waterway, she said, and she’s always hoping to activate as many volunteers as possible — as well as simply educate the whole community about the 8-mile stream and greenway flowing right through the heart of urban Vancouver.
To that end, the Vancouver Watersheds Alliance has worked with the Clark Conservation District and the state Department of Ecology to schedule three free, educational tours of the greenway, starting out from the trailhead behind the Arc of Southwest Washington at 6511 E. 18th St., on the third Saturday morning of the month in March, April and May.
If You Go
• What: Vancouver Watersheds Alliance sixth annual “food and film” series with free pizza.
• When: 6 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month, January through June. Films and dates: “The True Cost” (about the clothing industry) on Jan. 26; “Just Eat It” (food waste) on Feb. 23; “Lost Rivers” (buried waterways) on March 22; “Flow” (water rights and privatization) on April 26; “Plant this Movie” (urban farming) on May 24; and “Bikes vs. Cars” (bicycle activism) on June 28.
• Where:Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St., Vancouver.
• Cost:Free.
• Information: vancouverwatersheds.org or 360-852-9189.
• What: Burnt Bridge Creek Green-way spring tours, covering the history of the creek, dynamics of creek restoration, native plants and their benefits, and invasive plants and their costs.
• When: 10 a.m. to noon March 19, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. April 16 and 10 a.m. to noon May 21.
• Where: Meet at trailhead behind The Arc of Southwest Washington, 6511 E. 18th St., Vancouver.
“Too many people have no idea that Burnt Bridge Creek is even there,” O’Mahoney said. “I really want people to hear about it and what an important resource it is.” Previous tours have been extremely popular, she said, and people come away amazed at the history of the urban waterway.
The alliance also has launched a “Project Restore” program that works with private landowners along Burnt Bridge Creek who notice that their yards are being overtaken by invasive plants or eroding away. What good is it, O’Mahoney said, to bolster the health of public streamsides while adjacent private ones remain a big problem?
Invasive plants, such as ivy, kills trees by weighing them down and choking them off until they topple, O’Mahoney said. Blankets of ivy and “giant walls of blackberry” suffocate other vegetation too, she said, decreasing biodiversity and creating a “monoculture” that’s more vulnerable to disease and erosion. The result is a dirty, muddy creek where fish cannot thrive.
But diverse native trees and vegetation tend to fix the soil, cool the creek and provide a better habitat for fish and wildlife. Native plants “know how to grow if we can give them a chance,” she said. The agency and its volunteers plant approximately 12,000 native plants per year, O’Mahoney said.
Film series
O’Mahoney wants to spread the word about all kinds of other environmental issues too, she said, and that’s why she’s excited about the alliance’s annual documentary “food and film” series. The movies are all free — plus there’s free pizza — on the fourth Tuesday of the month for the next six months at the Vancouver Community Library. The first film is set for Tuesday.
That film is called “The True Cost,” and it examines the waste, environmental impacts and labor problems surrounding the international clothing industry, O’Mahoney said. Future films will include examinations of food systems and food waste; rivers that have been buried by modern development; water rights and water privatization; urban farming; and bicycle infrastructure.
O’Mahoney views all these movies before selecting them for public screening here, partially because she’s determined not to hit viewers with “gloom and doom,” she said. That may be what people expect when they hear “environmental documentaries,” but O’Mahoney wants everyone to walk away feeling informed and empowered to take positive steps, she said.
The alliance even maintains a free lending library of all the films it’s shown. Visit the website at vancouverwatersheds.org to see the list and learn more.
Grants and more
The alliance started out seven years ago as a program of the city of Vancouver, O’Mahoney said, and eventually spun off as an independent agency. But it still looks to the city for the core of its support through ongoing grant funding. O’Mahoney said she’s got a city grant that will last several years. Meanwhile the agency has 2 1/2 full-time employees.
But diversifying the agency’s funding is crucial, she said, and she’s exploring other local grantors and potential partnerships now. Because of its city-based funding, most of the Vancouver Watersheds Alliance’s work is carried out within the Vancouver city limits, but it’s also looking for ways to spread into Clark County. O’Mahoney said the agency, in conjunction with the Clark Conservation District and Clark County, will soon hold a series of homeowner workshops including tips for recycling correctly and establishing a healthier lawn. (Details to come; check the alliance’s website.)
O’Mahoney said she wishes more neighborhood groups knew about the alliance’s neighborhood grant program. Every year the agency has a total of $22,500 to give out — in $1,500 increments — to neighborhood groups that want to pursue grass-roots environmental projects such as rain gardens, cigarette receptacles, dog waste stations, tree plantings and invasive tree removals. The grants are easy to fill out, and the alliance is happy to provide help and guidance, she said.
