Urban Forest Service Learning Event

 

Service Learning Event on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

 

 



For my service learning project, I volunteered for Urban forest recovery located in South Everett which was on January 15th. I did not only volunteer for the sake of service learning, but also for serving the nation on Martin Luther Kings Jr. day. This specific project was to help revive the once private owned park into a vibrant living ecosystem for plants and animals also including the community.

I was in charge of planting some willow sticks for willow trees to develop in barren areas such as by the bridges and by streams where ducks swam in. The location of this park was relatively close to the highway and also integrated with the interstate trail that runs along interstate 5.

A little stream went under this bridge which had tiny tadpoles and ducks swimming

 

This project was held under the organization United Way and the leader for my volunteering work was Charlie Vogelheim, cvogelheim@forterra.org. I volunteered from 10 AM to 1:30 PM and then afterwards we were provided with food! Yum! The goals for this event was to specifically honor Martin Luther King Jr. by making a difference. Even the small picking up of trash from the wilderness can be a way of service. Our goal was to enhance and preserve this forest by planting plants and cleaning up along with maintaining the trails to make wildlife in the forest live easier in a clean environment.


Trails that we went along to clean and pick up trash. (Also the same below).

Throughout my volunteering experience, I discovered habitats for species such as squirrels and ducks along with some birds fluttering above the trees. I realized that as human development continues to increase and take over many places, we are the main cause of invasion. Without environmental science, I don't think people would be aware of what is happening to animal species and we are negatively affecting them even just by throwing a single piece of gum wrapper that can cause animals to choke if consumed. Its important for us to thank mother nature for its natural resources and we should consider that animals also have families and homes. They are just important for the world to have its balance. One connection that I made with this event to our course is that there are many species living in this forest. However bird population, according to the caretaker, decreased as human development increased. I thought that birds may have migrated to another forest and could maybe coexist with other species of birds which could maybe eventually evolve a new species over time if conditions are good enough.

4 Questions raised,
Do trails created in the forest affect wildlife and their habitats?
Did animal populations adapt according to human development?
How different would the diet of animal species be if there were no humanized developments.
How does a maintained forest differ from a natural forest with no maintenance?