At the Boys Explorers Club official Connelly Creek Restoration Site, Mentors gathered with Explorers and their families to do service. After our long winter sabbatical it was so refreshing for Mentors to connect with the Explorers' bright and cheery faces. The Boys Explorers Club would like to recognize and thank the Bellingham Parks Department and the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement for supplying the tools and providing debris pick up. Due to the success of this outing and some parent feedback the Mentors would like to hold another Explorer and family service project this summer. Date to be announced!
After gathering on Wilson Street the group walked the short stretch of creek along the way to our service site; it was clear that the Explorers were interested to see how Connelly Creek had changed throughout the winter season. The Explorers are becoming rooted in the seasonal history of Connelly Creek. Learning to track this landscape as it changes pushes the boys to engage their natural curiosity and inquiry. As their awareness and understanding of this site grows so does their ability to know how to serve the land. Allowing their visions and creative work to restore balance to Connelly Creek is such an empowering process for the boys.
Arriving at the site the group was ready to start, but first we needed to have an opening meeting to learn everyone’s name and recognize the work that has been done here previously. The group revisited our motto, The Difference Between a Tool and a Weapon is You, and the Mentors shared some big news with the Explorers. Today there was going to be doughnuts for all! (And coffee for the adults!) Mentors would like to offer a big thanks to Starbucks for their coffee donation.
Spreading over the land Explorers made observations of the work that needed to be done and collaboratively formulated a service plan for the day. Upon their discovery that the ground was too hard (and frozen) for digging they decided that our time would be best spent trimming back the Blackberries and Reed Canarygrass so that come spring time the stalks would be exposed and the roots and soil would be ready for digging.
Like clockwork, just as we were picking up our tools, who should appear but Matt Fogarty! What an exciting treat to have a mentor volunteer his morning with us. The group sprung into action; it was inspiring to watch everyone work. A few of the Explorers from the Branch Hoppers picked up where they had left off in the fall season, freeing a mature Sitka Mountain Ash from its suffocating blackberry bind. The boys worked alongside of Anne Fox and Sam Schumacher, first clearing its base, and then working up its maze of branches. It was awesome to look over and see that Anne had climbed up into the Ash to get after those hard-to-reach vines. Simultaneously, Michelle and Phil Evans worked with another group of boys to clear a huge thicket of waist-high blackberries. What a wonderful way to deepen our connection as a community and give back to the land. It was a pleasure getting to know parents as we worked side by side.
Just as the group was hitting a lull, Priscilla Brotherton showed up to give us some inspiration. Her Explorer (and EMA, Soren) and husband were out snowboarding, but she was determined to connect with the natural world too. So she took to doing service alongside the rest of the group!
Once the blackberries were cut and trimmed they were raked into formidable bundles and hauled over to our designated pickup spot. Watching parents and Explorers haul bundles across the site, it was easy to imagine them all as small native plants being suffocated by a swath of thorny blackberries. Ouch! It was also very inspiring for parents to witness their Explorers doing such great work. The focus and efforts the Explorers brought to their service really shows how much they are capable of.
While cutting a wall of blackberries back with a machete Matt Fogarty unearthed a few bones. Calling the group together Matt presented a piece of a lower jawbone and another mysterious bone piece. Through the Art of Questioning, tracking, and inquiry Matt helped the group ask the questions that led them to answers determining to whom these mysterious bones might belong.
The group tracked an animal trail near the spot that Matt had found the bones and assessed what type of teeth and jaw structure the skull had, determining that it was most likely a mustelid- River Otter, Mink, or Raccoon! How exciting to discover new mysteries about this landscape. Thanks Matt for such great Coyote Mentoring and your abundant natural curiosity.
We ended our service by holding a circle of thanks around the Sitka Mountain Ash; giving thanks for community, wild places, mystery, service, and play. As parents and Explorers trickled off, two boys from the eldest group, the Vespula Veterans, stayed to help clean up. It is so exciting to see these boys delving into new leadership roles and outstanding self-guided work. The Mentors are grateful to all those who personally served and also aided our service.
For more pictures please visit our Winter Photo Gallery. 
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