Why your Volunteer Service is Important
Forests need to have diversity in order to be healthy and thrive. When forests are thriving, they can provide many benefits to our community like filtering pollution, mitigating erosion and storm damage and providing habitat for wildlife and green spaces where people can connect with nature and the outdoors. Aggressive noxious weeds like English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry were brought to this area and planted by for their desirable characteristics of staying green all year round or tasty fruits. These plants have upset the balance that our forests need to survive and thrive. Removing these aggressive plants and planting native plants can help restore the balance to a damaged ecosystem.
What to Expect
Event will begin with a discussion that includes information about King County Parks, the park that you are serving in, why this work is important and tool use and safety. King County will supply work gloves, a jug of water, light snacks, all instruction and tools. Young people under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Any minors under the age of 18 attending the event without a parent or legal guardian must also bring a signed youth waiver to event in order to participate. Please plan to arrive on time for the start of the event and allow extra time to find parking. Valuable information about the park and instruction on the project is given at the start of the event and it is important for all volunteers to be present. Our project for the day is to remove English ivy from trees and ground in the park.
Our events run rain or shine. In the event of hazardous weather, the King County staff member leading your project will be in contact via email the morning of the project if weather conditions dictate any changes to event plans. Plan to check your email before you leave for the event to ensure you receive any event updates. If you are a contact for a group coming out to volunteer, please ensure that you have set up a way to contact your group members the morning of the event if needed.
What to Bring
Our events run rain or shine so please arrive prepared for the weather. We want you to enjoy your time with us!
- Layers of warm clothing that can get dirty. Jeans or thick pants are ideal, stretchy leggings, shorts or capris are not recommended
- Rain jacket and rain pants
- Closed –toed shoes are essential. Sturdy sneakers, rain boots or hiking boots are ideal
- Full water bottle
- Lunch and snacks
Please do not use GPS or Google Maps alone to navigate to parks. If you use GPS, please double check against this map and/or these directions to ensure the GPS is sending you to the correct meeting spot.
Directions from 405 – Closest Cross streets are 130th Av SE and SE 171st Pl
- Exit 405 at exit 4 to merge onto WA-169 S/Maple Valley Hwy toward Maple Valley/Enumclaw
- Turn right onto 140th Way SE
- Turn right onto SE Fairwood Blvd
- SE Fairwood Blvd turns slightly left and becomes 132nd Pl SE
- Turn right onto SE 164th St
- Turn left onto 128th Ave SE
- Turn left onto SE 172nd St
- Turn left onto 130th Ave SE
- Drive to end of 130th Ave SE and park in the neighborhood. Please do not drive all the way down to the dead end, it is difficult to turn around all the way at the end. Please stop a few houses up and turn around or park up there. Meeting spot is marked on map with a Red Bulls eye. Parking is limited, please carpool if possible.
