Brigid Ehrmantraut, Keith Light, Jesse Douglas-Sites SJCPW, Taj Howe and Robin Kucklick. Photo by Mindy Kayl
by Mindy Kayl
On Tuesday, October 28, the Orcas Island High School Environmental Club planted Sitka Spruce trees at the Mt. Baker Mitigation site.
It was a beautiful fall day, crisp and sunny, and perfect timing for transplanting trees. The 2- to 3-foot Sitka Spruce were nurtured in the Orcas Island School Garden this past year, but a spruce can grow up to 70 feet tall, so they needed to move.
Mindy Kayl (Wetlands Consultant) and Mandy Randolph (Farm to Classroom Teacher) thought the Mt. Baker Mitigation site would be a perfect home for the 20 young trees. With support from San Juan County Public Works and the high school administration, four Orcas teens helped transplant the young spruce. They have mapped the approximate locations of the planted trees and hope that future club members will be able to visit the site and measure the growth of the trees.
The trees were initially donated by John Evans after Arbor Day of 2012.
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“Hats off” to the Orcas Island High School Environmental Club and Mindy Kayl for growing on the Arbor Day seedlings and planting them at the Mr Baker mitigation site. The location should be ideal for our native Sitka Spruce. The trees come from our nursery in Doe Bay but the San Juan Island’s “free trees” Arbor Day program is the continuation of the idea started years ago by Pauli Gavora of San Juan Island. Over the years the Arbor Day project has contributed over 15,000 trees to the island yards and forests.
Pauli passed away this past year after a long battle with cancer. Our nursery and all the volunteers on San Juan, Lopez and Orcas intend to keep the Arbor Day program going in her memory.
John and Wanda Evans