In what has become a tradition to honor Earth Day in Edmonds, more than 100 eager participants spent their Saturday morning pitching in to collect trash from beaches, pull out invasive non-native plants from parks, and plant new native trees and shrubs in their place. Participating organizations included the City of Edmonds, Sound Salmon Solutions, and the Edmonds Youth Commission.

“We put in more than 100 new plants along the Shell Creek drainage in Yost Park alone,” said Edmonds horticulturalist Jesse Curran. “As these become established, the parks get an ecological boost as they move closer to reflecting the natural species mix in this ecosystem.”

According to Curran, Saturday’s plantings included western red cedar, bigleaf maple, vine maple, indian plum, hazelnut and Oregon ash.

Meanwhile over in Pine Ridge Park, volunteers busied themselves removing mountains of English Ivy, an invasive non-native species that — if left unchecked — would soon take over the parks. That effort was overseen by City Horticulturalist Debra Dill and City Urban Forest Planner Deb Powers, who added an educational component to the day by setting up a native plant demonstration table to help the volunteers learn about the variety of Edmonds’ native flora.

Two additional work parties met at Brackett’s Landing North and Marina Beach to help pick up and remove litter that has collected on the beaches. In addition to paper litter, much of what was collected included plastics, which are being increasingly identified as a potent threat to marine life.

— Story and photos by Larry Vogel