OlyEcosystems

MLK Jr Day Planting Party - January 15th
2024-01-15 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | West Bay Woods
Join us Monday, January 15 at 1515 West Bay Drive for a big day of planting native plants and shrubs into Stormwater Park North (the northern unit of the West Bay Woods) by the heron and salmon sculptures at the West Bay Art Crossing. We will be underplanting this section of shoreline forest, recently freed from English ivy, with conifers and native understory plants to reboot forest succession for the next generation. We will also be spreading mulch and doing some light weeding.
Walk or ride your bike if you can. If you are coming from the Northwest Neighborhood, you can walk down the Woodard Ave NW Pathway. We’ll have tools, snacks, water, hot tea & coffee to share (bring your own mug!).
Where: 1515 West Bay Dr. NW, Olympia, WA 98502
When: Monday, January 15th, 10AM – 2PM
Where to park: Limited parking is available at the end of Woodard Ave. Overflow parking is available at Smyth Landing (1801 West Bay Drive NW).
What to bring: Appropriate clothes for the weather, boots, work gloves, water. We will provide all other tools and refreshments.
Why it’s important
This project consists of a detached remnant shoreline forest that includes the impervious slabs of now demolished out-buildings of a defunct plywood mill. The hillside forest is dominated by bigleaf maple and red alder.
The understory and successional conifers, however, are largely absent, as the area has been long neglected and is now covered in a think blanket of English ivy, that has inhibited natural regrowth.
This area presents a meaningful opportunity to address water quality issues with green infrastructure and forest restoration. Our long-term goals are to install neighborhood-scale green infrastructure to treat 730,000 gallons per day of urban runoff that currently flows directly into Budd Inlet and to create a publicly-accessible community space that supports education, recreation, and art.

West Bay Woods Work Party – December 2023
2023-12-16 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | West Bay Woods
We continue the permitting process to turn the former parking lot at this site into a pond. We have made significant progress this year on that front. However, we have a persistent problem with bind weed (or morning glory), and Himalayan blackberry. Some of this site is undergoing glorious reforestation and is at this point self propelled. Some of it still needs our help. Morning glory removal is for those with patience. We will be working with our WCC crews and you, our volunteers, to weed this area and to translocate some black cottonwood in the form of live stakes. Join us and help make a difference at our Stormwater Park South site in the West Bay Woods!
Parking: Limited parking is available at 1215 West Bay Drive (across from the derelict Reliable Steel buildings). You may also park at West Bay Park and walk down West Bay Drive to our site.
What to bring: We will have some tools, but please consider bringing water, gloves, and garden tools for weeding. We’ll provide water, coffee, and snacks.

West Bay Woods Work Party – November 2023
2023-11-18 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | West Bay Woods
Our new Stormwater Park above West Bay Drive is nearing completion! We are excited to open this section of the West Bay Woods up to the public, but we need to get some plants in the ground first! Please come help OlyEcosystems plant native species at Stormwater Park South. Parking is very limited on site, so please be prepared to park at the West Bay “Rotary” Park and walk a block or so to the site. Please bring gloves and a shovel, if you have one. We will have some tools available.

West Bay Woods Work Party - October 2023
2023-10-21 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | West Bay Woods
OlyEcosystems is working to eventually connect the restoration area on West Bay Drive, at the south end of the Preserve, to the rest of the West Bay Woods. The weeds are starting to take over at this site and we need your help. Please come help remove invasive species at the restoration area in the south West Bay Woods, near West Bay Drive and Brawne Ave., across from the Rotary Park.
Please park at the Rotary park and walk up to the Restoration site just across West Bay Drive, on the lot north of 909 West Bay Drive here.
We will have some tools, but please consider bringing water, gloves, and garden tools for weeding.

West Bay Woods Work Party - September 2023
2023-09-16 10:00 - 14:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | West Bay Woods

August Volunteer Work Party
2023-08-19 10:00 - 13:00 UTC | Green Cove Creek Preserve
What combines time in the great outdoors, the satisfaction of improving local habitat, and spending time with others who enjoy the same? Join us to Nix the Knotweed along the edge of Green Cove Creek. Sponsored by the Olympia Ecosystems (OlyEcosystems) along with our stewards.
Why nix the knotweed? Knotweed is highly invasive and spreads quickly. It can quickly dominate stream banks, sides of roads, gardens, and other sunny, moist, and disturbed sites. It shades out native plants, reduces access to streams, and its strong roots can even destroy buildings.
When? From 10am-1pm on Saturday August 19, 2023
Where? Park on the corner of 14th Ave NW and Kaiser Road NW or at the Grass Lakes Park entrance on Kaiser Road, then carefully cross Kaiser Road (site is on the West side of Kaiser Road NW).
What to wear/bring? Wear any comfortable clothing, and bring any sharp cutting tool: hand loppers, pruners, or small landscape scythes work well. Coffee and water will be provided. BYOC – bring your own cup!
Please email Diane at diane@olyecosystems.org to register!

July Volunteer Work Party
2023-07-15 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | Cooper Crest

West Bay Woods Work Party
2023-07-15 09:00 - 14:00 UTC | West Bay Woods
What better way to beat the heat then gather with community in the shady woods for some weeding? We will be working in and around the fenced in area downhill from the Hays Avenue Trailhead.
For those of you who have never been inside this fenced in area or who have not been there in a while, you will be pleased with how this hillside is progressing. We hope to open this area up next spring. For now, we will be finding tansy ragwort, butterfly bush, clearing horsetail around new plants, finding blackberry and freeing the plants in the wetland area from morning glory (aka bindweed).
Parking: Either at site entrance off of West Bay Drive or park along Rogers St NW and walk down from the Hays Avenue Trailhead.
What to bring: Work gloves and a can-do attitude. We will provide water and light snacks.

June Volunteer Work Party
2023-06-17 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | West Bay Woods

Nix the Knotweed
2023-05-26 10:00 - 12:00 UTC
Nix the Knotweed is an all-volunteer effort led by professional organic gardeners and landscapers in Connecticut: Suz Thompson, Petie Reed, and Perennial Harmony Gardens. We credit them for their mentorship in mechanical means of controlling invasive knotweed varieties.

May Volunteer Work Party
2023-05-20 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | West Bay Woods

April Volunteer Work Party
2023-04-15 10:00 - 14:00 UTC | Cooper Crest
Work Party
