Wabash alumni, family, and friends in the Puget Sound celebrated a very successful 4th annual Wabash Day on Saturday, October 11, 2008. A group of 11, including 5 Wabash men, participated in environmental restoration work at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. The event was coordinated through EarthCorps, a Seattle-based environmental organization dedicated to restoring parks throughout the Puget Sound area. Mother Nature cooperated and gave us a glorious fall day.
The Wabash group was tasked with building a barrier along a forest trail, and then spreading mulch along the barrier to prevent erosion. The team quickly completed the barrier assignment and then set-up a "bucket brigade" to move and spread mulch along the hillside. What the EarthCorps team expected to take two hours the Wabash group completed in half the time--in fact, our EarthCorps team leader asked us to slow down. What else would you expect from a Wabash group?
Next, we set about removing English Ivy, which chokes out native trees and bushes. Again, the Wabash team tackled the task with gusto. Our team, which had dwindled to seven after lunch, removed well-entrenched ivy (think the plants from the movie Little Shop of Horrors) using pruning sheers, those tug-of-war muscles, and a little help from gravity. In the end, we completely cleared a hillside of years of ivy growth, helping to prepare that area for planting of new native bushes and plants.
The event was a real success, and marked our largest group in three years of events in Seattle.
In photo above: Greg Fulmer '05, Michael Murphy '77, Deborah Murphy, John Kasey '08 (and to his right a friend, Sarah Payton), Andrew Naugle '98, Corley Hughes