Residents of Moscow, Pullman and beyond who want to get involved in volunteer programs designed to conserve the beautiful Palouse are in luck this spring.
The Palouse Conservation District hosts several initiatives, events and projects in the area to encourage everyday people to learn about their environment and how to take care of the outdoor spaces around them.
These activities are organized and advertised through GivePulse. This is a platform to list, find, organize and measure the impact of service-learning, community engagement, philanthropy and volunteerism in the community, according to their webpage. This platform is used to organize the Plant the Palouse initiative.
As described by the “about” section of Plant the Palouse’s registration page, this project will help to improve water quality along Palouse’s streams and create habitats by planting native trees and shrubs. Volunteers will have an opportunity to get their hands dirty and give back to the Palouse at various sites within and outside the city of Pullman limits.
According to their registration page for Plant the Palouse, the Palouse Conservation District’s mission is, “to foster the voluntary conservation of natural resources by providing the tools, education, technical expertise and financial assistance to support (the) local community.” Palouse Conservation District works through voluntary, incentive-based programs to assist landowners and agricultural operators with the conservation of natural resources throughout the District.
The Plant the Palouse project began at 1 p.m. on March 17 and will continue until April 17, ending at noon. Interested participants can register here.
Diana Armstrong, a Moscow resident and member of the Palouse chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby registered for the event upon learning about it at a Lobby meeting. According to Armstrong, Plant the Palouse’s environmental impact aligned with the Lobby’s goal to soil carbon emission, slow global warming by protecting watersheds and providing shade for plant life.
Registered volunteers are instructed to meet at the start of the three-hour session at 1615 NE Eastgate Blvd, Suite H in Pullman, Washington, the Business Incubator building for Palouse Conservation District. There, volunteers meet with an AmeriCorps member responsible for coordinating the volunteer group and escorting the volunteers to the conservation site.
AmeriCorps is a voluntary civil society program supported by the U.S. federal government, foundations, corporations, and other donors that engages adults in public service work with a goal of “helping others and meeting critical needs in the community,” according to their website.
Three AmeriCorps volunteers, Erica Jansen, Patrick Wholin and Audrey Martinez were present at a planting session on March 31. All three members have experience as paid volunteers working within the Washington Service Corps, more specifically with the Palouse Conservation District on a ten-month service term.
Erica Jansen is the online administrator through GivePulse and a coordinator for Plant the Palouse. In these roles, she manages registrations, emails, volunteer questions and helps to organize registered participants during the volunteer sessions while also gathering and organizing equipment and dividing tasks among the group.
“I would highly encourage (potential) volunteers to get out and volunteer,” Jansen said. “It’s a great way to service the community. Just get out with friends and family and learn more about the Palouse and what we do.”
Patrick Wholin, another coordinator with the project, works as the Resource Conservation Technician for the Palouse Conservation District, leading the field crew of three AmeriCorps members during sessions as a former volunteer for both AmeriCorps and the Washington Conservation Corps. Wholin implements different initiatives for planting willows and bare roots, building up stream banks structures, general landscaping and maintaining about 20 different conservation sites on the Palouse this spring season.
“I think it’s really important … working again to see firsthand what goes on (with) the different plants around here and learning about the watershed and about pollution and how we can work to help to beautify this area and keep it pollution free,” Wholin said.
Audrey Martinez is also an AmeriCorps member involved in the initiative. Some of her responsibilities, particularly pre-COVID-19, included supporting the education outreach programs for the Palouse Conservation District by visiting classrooms in-person to teach students about environmental initiatives. Currently, members are educating by filming videos, science garments and hosting planting sessions like Plant the Palouse.
“I’m here to help facilitate community members and come teach them about what conservation efforts are going on in the Palouse,” Martinez said. “(I’m) also showing them ways they can implement different riparian buffers on their own properties.”
Martinez encourages interested volunteers to participate even if they may not prefer to help with planting or outdoor work.
“I think one of the biggest things to recognize is, if you like to do outdoor stuff, we have a lot of that, but there are also options for educational outreach,” Martinez said. “If you want to work on other activities that are more indoors but still envelop the idea of conservation, we definitely have those opportunities.”
Volunteer groups are limited to eight per session with mask-wearing and social distancing enforced at all times. Gloves and tools are provided for participants, but volunteers are advised to wear long pants and close-toed shoes, dress for rain or shine and provide their own transportation and water during the session.
To learn more about Plant the Palouse and other upcoming Palouse Conservation District projects, visit their website, Facebook page under Palouse Conservation District, or Instagram account @palouseconservationdistrict.
Katarina Hockema can be reached at [email protected]