About 30 hearty souls came out to the wonderful Skagit Land Trust Utopia property on a threatening day .. to plant about 200 trees.  It was a combined effort of the Land Trust and the Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group and continues many years of tree planting in the huge meadow and along streams.  We had Girl Scouts, parents, volunteers, interns, and staff from both organizations.

Utopia - Tree Planting

November 03, 2018

We will be planting along this stream - a "side channel" of the Skagit River.  Baby salmon spend time here eating and growing before heading out to the ocean.  As the trees grow they will help shade the water to keep it cool and provide "habitat" for bugs that fall in the water for the salmon to eat.  We got a good demonstration of how to plant the trees and shrubs we will work with today!

And away we go!  Good to work with a partner - every team has their own way to do it!  The white "protectors" keep little "voles" from eating the tree and also give it some strength to keep standing tall.  People working near the water wear life vests.

Here are trees in their black pots - right where we will plant them!  We put that long stick in at the end to help hold up the protector and to be able to find them when the tall grass grows!!!

It isn't all work - here are some other fun things we saw and did.

Empty pots

Dirty gloves

Beetle

Our bosses

Getting our picture taken after all the work done!

Thanks everybody!!!