BY PEPPER FISHER
Port Angeles – The effort to improve and highlight the view of Port Angeles Harbor from the Front Street hill where it drops down to the Waterfront District is making some major headway this week, thanks to the efforts of the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC).
The Waterfront District has hired the WCC to do the difficult and even dangerous rappel work on the bluff that the City’s volunteers cannot do at their regular work parties.
This work is part of a ten-year plan to restore what’s now being called the Welcoming Vista. It’s painstaking work that involves removing invasive species in stages while also stabilizing the bluff by planting more appropriate species along the way.
The project is being steered by Lissy Moriarty, a Landscape Architect who owns the local company Brambles Design Studio. She points out that the task of removing blackberry and English Ivy vines is hard work under the best of circumstances.
“And when you add a hillside into it, and a hillside that just gets steeper and steeper, it’s not a fun task. And, honestly, it gets a little dangerous to a certain point. So, you know, the team decided that we should bring in the WCC because they can just rappel down the hillside, and really go to town on taking all those invasive species out, and making job for volunteers so much easier.”
The Waterfront District is paying for this phase of the project, but they’re also working with the City of Port Angeles in the long term. This week’s work by the WCC will allow the City to accomplish other tasks next year, such as de-limbing trees and opening up viewsheds.
Later in the month of November, another volunteer work party is scheduled to pick up where the WCC leaves off.
“That is correct. And we actually have a volunteer day on November 15th, beginning at 9 and ending, usually around 12, or whenever anyone wants to finish work. And we’re going to be planting dogwoods along the hillside after the WCC comes through. So, if there’s anyone that’s interested in joining, we meet at the Red Lion parking lot, right below Front Street, to do that.”
Learn more about the Port Angeles Waterfront District and how you can volunteer at portangeleswaterfront.com.
(Photo courtesy of Sam Grello)