Latino Conservation Week Project Set To Make Improvements To Nason Creek

The Chelan-Douglas Land Trust (CDLT) is holding an event in connection with Latino Conservation Week to make habitat improvements in the Nason Creek area near Lake Wenatchee.

"Latino Conservation Week is a celebration that's been happening for ten years and for the first time the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust has the availability to participate," says CDLT Community Inclusion Coordinator Elisa Lopez. "So I wanted to host an event for Latinos to get together to help them show support for protecting our lands, waters, and all of the natural spaces that we have."

The centerpiece of the Caring for Nason Creek or Cuidando el Arroyo Nason event will be the removal of Spotted Knapweed, which is an invasive plant that is having a negative impact on the area's ecosystem.

Lopez says when she learned about how the weed was impacting Nason Creek, it became the motivation for creating the event.

"The idea really came to me when I was out there with some colleagues and co-workers and we were looking at the site as a potential place for a future youth education location. When I was out there, my colleagues let me know about this invasive plant and how it was everywhere and how they'd been trying for a while to get a group out there to pull it, so it's really perfect timing."

Lopez says Spotted Knapweed is easy to pull from the riparian area's sandy soil and that the plant is in its seeding cycle now, so all of it that is removed will be bagged and thrown away.

In addition to the weeding effort, the event will also feature an informational nature walk about fish habitat restoration projects and a picnic with snacks and refreshments provided by CDLT.

The event is limited to eight participants and those who are interested should register at the CDLT website by clicking here.

Children are welcome to attend and participants are not required to be of Latino origin or background.