By Delaney Skiles, Land Stewards Intern serving with King Conservation District in Washington.
My time at KCD has reinforced that I truly enjoy connecting people with the natural world through education. From engaging youth at KCD’s native plant nursery volunteer events to discussing solutions with King County landowners to address their natural resource challenges, I’ve had a wide range of opportunities to connect the public with their local environment. At the beginning of my time at KCD, I volunteered at a natural resource competition for high school students called Envirothon. I set up the forestry testing station and graded the students’ forestry knowledge assessments. Outside of testing hours, I connected with various students about their months of Envirothon studying and their curiosity about continuing in environmental science past high school. Though I’m very early in my environmental science career, it was nice to share my experiences thus far and be an encouraging force in their journey as science students.
Performing one-on-one tree planting consultations with Shoreline residents fostered a similar curious dialogue. After creating a tree selection video for the City of Shoreline’s Communi-Trees tree giveaway, I met with Shoreline landowners who had requested tree selection and placement advice for their yards. A majority of my visits resulted in learning opportunities for myself and Shoreline residents. We talked about how tree spacing can mitigate competition for resources, how to remove invasive species and replant natives, what trees were best suited for compact, urban soils, and so on. In turn, I learned plenty from my coworkers and Shoreline residents – about fruiting species growing better in twos, the trials and tribulations of tree removal and city right-of-way laws, and how to best manage at-home composting.
I’ve learned the most from shadowing various KCD staff during their site visits. With forestry project coordinators, I’ve observed how they qualitatively and quantitatively assess new projects and verify project success alongside landowner satisfaction. Watching project planners build personal relationships with cooperators while carrying out effective restoration projects has been truly inspiring. Their expertise and commitment to accessible language made hesitant landowners more open-minded to restoration’s benefits on their property. I’ve also had the chance to actively work on restoration project components like riparian buffer success monitoring and restructuring the forestry team’s monitoring schedule and protocol. Having the opportunity to observe each step of a project from planning to post-installation monitoring has opened my eyes to the possibilities of environmental restoration in urban areas.
I’m excited to continue supporting local conservation and restoration efforts with my remaining time at KCD. I hope to learn as much as I can in these remaining months!