Agroforestry Grows in Snohomish County
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Mariah, an Earthcorps Member, plants trees at Snohomish Riverfront. Three separate crews including Earthcorps, King County’s Washington Conservation Corps and the Snohomish Conservation District’s Washington Conservation Corps worked on this project.
Pilchuck Julia Landing is home to the latest installation of agroforestry in Snohomish County. This park lies along the banks of the Snohomish River and has offered the public a boat launch, river access, and open space for fair weather relaxation and recreation. But now, with the planting of a “multifunctional riparian forest buffer,” the park is now home to thousands of beautiful native trees and shrubs with view corridors in place for residents nearby, as well as hundreds of food producing trees and shrubs for the public to enjoy*.
Where once tangles of blackberry clung to the banks of the river there will now be feathery Shore Pine, grand Western Red Cedar, and dappled canopies of Big Leaf Maple creating a microcosm for mosses, ferns, insects, birds, and small mammals! Red flowering currant and Indian plum will brighten the landscape with spring flowers for pollinators and people alike to enjoy. Blueberries and honeyberries will offer a summer snack while walnuts, hazelnuts, and various fruit trees will offer late summer and fall treats for those who come down to harvest the bounty.
These innovative “multifunctional riparian forest buffer” systems offer ecological benefits to the river and local wildlife while also offering food to people, and are becoming more popular across the nation. These systems, which produce high value food crops as they keep water clean and riverbanks protected, can be adopted in public places such as local parks, or on private lands, including farmlands with waterways or marginal wet areas.
Native forest ecosystems along our rivers and streams are critically important for keeping many pollutants out of our waterways and for providing the necessary habitat for our cold water fish species such as our salmon. Many of these forests have been stripped away leaving stretches of our streams and rivers exposed to pollutants, bank erosion, and excessive heat from lack of shade. Much is being done around the county to re-establish these amazing ecosystems in the form of dense plantings of native trees and shrubs. While these plantings are critically important, they usually offer little opportunity for human interaction with these spaces.
By planting a “multifunctional riparian forest buffer,” we can realize the ecological benefits of reestablishing beautiful native plantings along our rivers and streams, while integrating food and medicinal trees and shrubs. On farmlands, these high value crops help producers diversify their incomes, and in parks, along trails, and urban areas, the public may enjoy them.
Agroforestry systems also invite us to interact with stream and river forests in ways that we would not otherwise have the opportunity to do. While we’re standing amongst the native shrubs, trees, and food plants, we begin to notice a new songbird, we catch a fleeting glimpse of a salamander as it slithers by within the leaf litter, or we become curious about a fuzzy orange bee that we see on vivid clusters of flowers. We are invited into these spaces to witness and be part of the complexity of life that exists as well as to be nourished by these spaces through food and through experience.
If you have the opportunity to head down to Pilchuck Julia Landing take note of the new planting along the river and watch as it grows into a space that invites you in to participate and be a part of the multifunctional ecosystem.
Funding opportunities sometimes present themselves for agroforestry projects so if you are interested in trying out this type of implementation, please get in touch with Carrie Brausieck at cbrausieck@snohomishcd.org / 703-407-8341. Learn more about agroforestry and previous projects on our Agroforestry page.
*Note- Please remember to wash what you gather and know what you’re picking before you eat it!
