Although it has been a tough year we have felt the love, joy, and commitment of our volunteers, partners, and funders all year long.
This year 1,071 volunteers committed over 4,600 hours planting, pulling, mulching, and picking up trash at 43 stewardship events.
You all planted 4,855 native trees, shrubs, and forbs. Many of which were planted during our Annual Watershed Wide Event.
Removed 8,200 sq ft of unwanted vegetation, which many real estate professionals would consider to be a mansion’s footprint of square footage.
And removed 6.4 tons of trash during the Annual Johnson Creek Clean-up. And the Golden Garbage can award for weirdest coolest thing was awarded to JCWC’s new mascot, a stuffed dinosaur, aptly named Rubbage.
Our volunteers and partners also helped us connect with over 1,800 youth, family, and community members through environmental education and tabling events.
I’d like to give a special thank you to all our Creek Crew Leaders, or what we like to call them, super volunteers, this year who went through hours of training in January and stepped up to help lead these events.
This year we continued our five community science programs. Our amphibian egg mass surveyors braved the cold weather and found all 4 species of our native pond breeding amphibians. Our Powell Butte Bird surveyors continued to record data to monitor how the restoration projects on the butte are impacting prairie nesting bird populations. Dragonfly and damselfly surveyors surveyed a new pond this year and spotted an autumn Meadowhawk. 41 Beaver surveyors got in Johnson Creek and its tributaries and found several beaver dams and lodges. And our salmon surveyors have already spotted salmon in Crystal Springs.
Our riparian program continued to connect with homeowners in the upper watershed in an effort to revegetate the Johnson Creek Watershed from tip to tail.
And our restoration program completed the super cool Confluence Project, where almost 200 logs were placed at the mouth of Johnson Creek to support healthy salmon habitat.
These are just a few of the highlights from all of the amazing work you have all put into this year.
Thank you so much to the wonderful community that JCWC gets to call home!
