Volunteers help restore Quil Ceda Creek

Volunteers helped to restore some of the creek land near Strawberry Fields Park back to its native habitat on Feb. 29.

The Adopt A Stream Foundation worked with the city of Marysville, the state's Department of Ecology, the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife, and land trust group Forterra to plant trees around the Quil Ceda Creek.

"We are planting trees. A lot of these fields out here have gotten fallow," said Kyle Koch, an ecologist and one of the project managers with the Adopt A Stream Foundation.

"It was logged out a hundred years ago and turned into strawberry fields. Then that went belly-up so what took over was a lot of invasive reed prairie grass," he said.

The foundation helped host an event to bring people out and plant trees near the creek.

"It's great because there's all kinds of people we get," said Koch.

"There's some people who show up to every volunteer event and some who have never planted a tree in their lives, and that's just as important to do that outreach to people," he said.

Volunteers said they enjoyed helping the Marysville park.

"We're just trying to help out. We like doing this stuff especially as we go fishing," said volunteer Richard Weller.

"It's rewarding and you get to do it with other people, which is fun," said volunteer Ellie Sen.

Trees create a "riparian buffer" around creeks which create a better environment for the fish.

"The good thing about trees is that they create shade and habitat for salmon," said Koch.

He said that Coho salmon (silver salmon) often come to that area of the Quil Ceda Creek to spawn.

"It's early in the year. They're done spawning but they haven't emerged from the gravel yet," he said.

"This tributary is one of the bigger ones in Marysville and it's very historically important. It used to have a huge salmon run, and it was and still is important to the local tribes like Tulalip," said Koch.

The trees could also bring other benefits to the area.

"It's a huge open area that is just right up the Department of Ecology's alley because they are all about water quality," said Koch.

The foundation has been working at the park for a while now to build a better salmon habitat.

"We started off with eight acres and got permission from the city of Marysville to continue with another six acres," said Koch.

More information about the Adopt A Stream Foundation and their work is available at their website at streamkeeper.org.