Volunteers potted over half of the plants in our nursery

By Sarah Brown, Stewardship Program Manager

Every year, NSEA restocks the native plant nursery housed at our campus by buying bareroot plants at a local wholesale nursery. This is a daunting task each spring, as we order up to 14,000 plants that need to be potted into one-gallon pots. In 2025, nearly 200 volunteers helped pot 7,500 of those plants through a series of community and private events.

These events are fan favorites around NSEA because we get to play in the dirt and care for baby trees and shrubs that will one day be planted at restoration sites. Thank you to everyone who helped care for our nursery and saved our crew hours of potting time!

By Avery Garritano, Stewardship Coordinator

In April, 95 community members ventured out to the beautiful Maple Creek Reach on Whatcom Land Trust protected land to celebrate Earth Day. These volunteers removed invasive Scotch broom to improve the riparian habitat of Maple Creek and the North Fork Nooksack River. Through this collaborative effort, we successfully removed 20 cubic yards (about 4,000 pounds) of invasive vegetation. In 2025, volunteers contributed over 6,500 hours to work parties alone, which equates to 270 days! NSEA would not be able to do the work we do without the consistent contributions of our volunteers.