You can contact us at:

The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation
at the
Northwest Stream Center
600-128th Street SE
Everett, WA 98208-6353
Tel: 425-316-8592
Fax: 425-3381423
Email:
aasf@streamkeeper.org

  Press Release: From the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation June 2, 2005

For Release: June 2, 2005
Event Date: June 6, 2005 8am-11am
Action: Volunteers needed to help implement a fish and wildlife habitat enhancement project on the golf course at the Mill Creek Country Club
Contact: Adopt-A-Stream Foundation: 425-316-8592
Jan Holbrook, Ecologist, Field Coordinator (cell: 425-328-6095)

Golf Course Becoming Fish and Wildlife Sanctuary

Penny Creek, a tributary of North Creek which drains into the Sammamish River, hosts a patchwork of valuable salmon, trout and wildlife habitat. Adjacent to the fourth fairway at the Mill Creek Country Club, there is a portion of Penny Creek that requires shade and native shrubs to form a refuge for juvenile salmon and small wildlife. The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation, Mill Creek Country Club, Trout Unlimited, local volunteers, Washington Department of Ecology and King County Water Works are teaming up to help create that refuge.

Funds provided by Department of Ecology and King County Water Works grants are being used to purchase and plant 180 shrubs along 2,500 square feet of stream edge running perpendicular to the fourth fairway. Other planting events are planned on the second, third, fifth, tenth and eighteenth fairways that will effectively vegetate the entire streamside within the Mill Creek Country Club. This effort will provide continuous habitat, rather than fragmentation along the stream corridor.

Adding this buffer between "the stream and the green" is right on track with the environmentally sound practices already in place at the Country Club to prevent contamination of the fish and wildlife habitat. Golf course Superintendent, Paul Hoffman, has been using alternative methods to pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and fertilizers for years. For example, instead of chemicals to fight moss on a particular green, he choose to trim the tops of strategically located trees to let the sun reach the ground, which effectively killed the shade-loving moss. The buffer created by the native plants will add to his program by filtering nutrients and chemicals from run-off water before it reaches the stream, improving water quality downstream.

The design of this rather unique habitat restoration project is a challenge. Line-of-sight issues for golfers prevent planting even moderately tall plants. Native shrubs that can be "hedged" to an acceptable height will be utilized. Low-growing, water-loving sedges and rushes will be planted at the waters edge. In case of an errant golf ball shot, nothing with thorns will be planted to facilitate ball removal from the planted area.

A volunteer planting event is scheduled for Monday, June 6th from 8am to 11am. Starbucks of Mill Creek is providing coffee. For information on how to volunteer for the planting, contact Jan Holbrook at the Adopt-A-Stream Foundation (425) 316-8592.