Gales Creek Clean Up - Giving Back to the Community

Date: October 12, 2006

4-H Tech Wizard students are required to provide 15 hours of community service as part of the program. Giving back to the community is an important way to acknowledge the value of the education received and to help others.

On October 12, fourteen Tech Wizard students joined forces with SOLV to assist with a clean up project at Gales Creek. These Latino volunteers are part of a pilot project called “Equipo Verde”. Together with volunteers from Intel, Fisher Farms, and the Banks area they removed over 10 cubic yards of English ivy and picked up trash, totaling 25 sacks (500 lbs) including six tires.

This latest SOLV event marks another step toward restoring riparian (streamside) forest and ultimately improving stream quality for fish, farmers and Forest Grove residents downstream. The Council is working on this five mile section of Gales Creek as a special emphasis project in the Tualatin River watershed. A habitat restoration plan was completed in 2003 and further field work conducted in 2005 has pinpointed the types of projects that will help stabilize eroding stream banks, control invasive weeds like English ivy and Japanese knotweed, and replant native trees. This project is a partnership effort between the local community, the Tualatin River Watershed Council, and the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District.

According to Lisa Conroy, OSU Extension Service Washington County 4-H faculty and Tech Wizards Program coordinator, “The 4-H Tech Wizards program is delighted to expand our highly successful after-school mentoring program at Forest Grove High School to include this new science, leadership, and Career-Related Learning Standards (CRLS) focused project. This new partnership with SOLV is one more example of how organizations working together can engage families to make a huge difference in educational achievement, future workforce readiness, as well as impact the quality of life in our communities.”

Press Contact:

Lisa Conroy, 4-H Faculty
Email: Lisa.Conroy@OregonState.edu
Phone: 503-725-2113

SOLV Contact:
503-844-9571 or 800-333-SOLV (toll-free in Oregon)
5193 NE Elam Young Parkway, Suite B, Hillsboro, OR 97124
www.solv.org

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