Winter Break 2016 Service Learning at Pack Forest

Last winter break I joined a service learning activity at Pack Forest, near Eatonville, which was held by CSEL (on our campus) and partnered with the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. The trip was from Dec 12 to 15 2016. On that, we worked on the Little Mashel Falls trail, helped UW restore and sustain some parts of the trail, make it safe for hikers and tourists who want to explore the area. Besides that the project also wants to save the natural conditions and habitats of the flora and fauna in the area. The total service hours were 16 divided into 2 days, 8 hours for each day. Ekaterina and Sam were the supervising staff members of the trip; information about activity can be provided by Stewart Sinning via email stewart.sinning@email.edcc.edu.

The Pack forest includes Little Mashel Rivers with some amazing falls. However, it is dangerous in raining season where there were 2 deaths reported in 2016 which caused by the slippery, dangerous, unsustained pathways. In our service hours, we tried to reconstruction the trail as much as possible. Some of us carried the wooden logs to make the barriers along the way down to the falls. Some groups expanded and sustained the hiking trails, while others dug the ditches that allowed rain water draining out but not wear away the surface soil. When we first came there, the forest staff showed us surrounding area that they were also processing other project such as measuring and check the rain in the area, observing the growth of trees in different areas,… They all use modern equipment and make us interested in.

On the first day, I joined in the expanding part with 4 other members. We successfully opened the pathway almost as twice as original. We also discover the animals around our working place. I saw many of the creatures that I had never seen before in urban area such as a salamander. Moreover, from my partner I also learned that it is a amphibians not a reptile as lizard. On the next day, I switched to the “ditch team”. From that, the forest staff taught us how to build a ditch that fits with the flow of water when streaming down from upper parts. Water plays an extremely important role in life but it also endangers if it is overflowed and causes flood, eroding, and even threatens animals and plants. Before we did this task, the forest staff gave us a document about digging drains to read and have a general idea about what we would do. It’s hard to imagine but when he showed us how to do, it could easily get into your head.

expanding team was trying to open and flatten the pathway.

Our work did not finish the project but we contributed a little of our effort to the community. On the other hand, I could learn a lot from this event about natural conservation, strength of team work, using tools, and flora and fauna organisms. I have wondered about the flow and also the effects of rain to our work. Does it need to be restore every year? What should it become if we stop restoration? Does our work benefit the hiking activity of the Pack forest area which could prevent hazard to people? Also I want to explore the fauna and flora further when I have a chance to come back there.