Earth Day volunteers clean and restore green spaces across Seattle

Wheelbarrow tracks lined the long, damp grass in Seward Park as volunteers ferried heaps of aromatic mulch between a maternal pile in the parking lot and a nursery of small growth plants deeper in the forest on Earth Day.

At the end of the wheelbarrow procession, Emily Hart spread the mulch in circles around baby trees, sword fern, vine maple and salmonberry under the cover of tall trees that filtered a light shower of cool rain.

Hart was 29 weeks pregnant. It felt like a "full circle moment" to be nurturing baby plants with mulch while she was growing a baby herself, said the 32-year-old from Queen Anne.

Her group, some 20-strong, was organized by the Seward Park Audubon Center through Green Seattle Partnership. They were just one of several organized Earth Day events throughout the city and the region Wednesday.

Wednesday was her first time volunteering for Hart, an engineer at Quizlet. She'd come to love Seward Park after swimming there last summer while her local pool was closed.

Brianna Klein, a Seward Park Audubon Center programs manager, wore a bright smile and chipper attitude as she coached the volunteer team through their stations. While starting her career in Hawaiʻi, Klein learned that "if you take care of the land, the land takes care of you."

Across the parking lot, the rest of Hart's group was busy yanking invasive English ivy and Himalayan blackberry from the forest floor. Raindrops ticked against the volunteers' colorful rain jackets as they carried armfuls to a raft of sticks made to aerate and dry out the lush refuse.

"Every day should be Earth Day," said Camille Ganir, a 51-year-old from Renton.

Pulling up the ivy was satisfying, she said. When she's not working at LAZ parking, Ganir plants flowers in her friend's garden - right now, they're dahlias. For Ganir, it was nice to "clear a path and let the native species be able to thrive. That's important for me," she said.

Mud squished up around Ganir's boots as rain began to soak through the earth.

She was happy to be outside, even in the very-Seattle weather. It was a welcome break from her sunless office. She scooped up another tangle of ivy and ducked through the growth to dump it on the raft.

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