Volunteers Spend Saturday Morning Planting Native Shrubs Along Discovery Trail

About 15 volunteers pitched in to plant approximately 1,180 native shrubs along the Discovery Trail in Centralia on Saturday morning in an effort to control the invasive blackberry bushes in the area and strengthen the habitat.

“Everybody owns it so everybody needs to take care of it. It’s nice to see people out here today helping out,” said Joyce Watts, one of the volunteers.

The Chehalis River Basin Land Trust and the Centralia Stream Team teamed up to plant the vegetation to help take care of the area and make it more enjoyable to place to be.

Before planting the native shrubs, a large section of aggressively overgrown blackberry bushes were cut down. Jan Robinson, president of the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust, said that the blackberries were starting to grow into and take over two pine trees that she had planted along the trail years several years ago. The shrubs that the volunteers planted along the trail are the tall Oregon grape, snowberry, linden plum and shore pine — all native to the area. 

“It’s a great habitat. The shrubs are going to grow up and protect the river bank and help keep the water clean,” said Robinson. 

Rachel Germann, one of the volunteers and a Centralia College student from Onalaska, said her family owns a dairy farm, so she is used to doing work outside and getting a little dirty.

“I like being outside, I like nature so it’s nice to be able to help out,” Germann said. 

The land is owned by the City of Centralia but the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust has an easement to take care of the habitat on the south side of the river which is about a mile and a half in length.

Robinson, who led the volunteer effort, said that she read an article in the newspaper about 15 years ago about volunteers coming together to take care of the environment and she decided to go to help out — she has been involved with taking care of the local habitats ever since.

After over 1,000 plants were planted on Saturday, there are still about 175 bare-root plants left to be planted. The Chehalis River Basin Land Trust and the Centralia Stream Team will host another event at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29 to get the rest of the native plants in the ground and encourages anyone to come and help if they can.  

Robinson said that in the summer they will come out again to maintain the shrubs by doing some weed control. 

Watts and her husband Andrew made the drive from McCleary to help out. Watts said that their daughter used to come along with them to help out with the planting, she stayed involved in the upkeep of local habitats and ended up graduating with an ecology degree. Watts said their daughter lives in the Seattle area now and is still involved with volunteer projects up north.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Watts replied matter-of-factly after The Chronicle asked her why she felt it was important to volunteer.

Watts and her husband have been volunteering and helping out with various projects aimed to improve the environment for well over a decade. Watts recalled some of the vegetation that she and her daughter had planted about 15 years ago along the Discovery Trail. 

“We came out here and put in a lot of this vegetation,” she said, pointing to the tall shrubs in front of her. “It’s cool to come back and see it and see how much everything has grown,” Watt said. 

Robinson agreed that it’s rewarding to come back and see the plants and trees that were once barely a foot tall grow and become important parts of the local habitat.

Mazzi Nowicki, a junior at Centralia High School, said she is a part of the school’s environmental club.

“I’m here to represent our environmental club. I like nature so I’m glad I could help out,” Nowicki said.