Much of the habitat restoration work being done in the City of Bellingham is accomplished by Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) crews. The crews are sponsored by the City of Bellingham in partnership with the Washington State Department of Ecology and the federal Americorps program. The crews are supervised by the City of Bellingham Environmental Resources Division. Each crew consists of five Corps members and a crew supervisor. Corps members serve for one year. In 2006, the city and WCC crews restored 18.7 acres of riparian buffer and planted over 6,200 trees. To date the WCC crews have cleared, planted and continue to maintain more than 30 riparian restoration sites totaling almost 60 acres within the City of Bellingham and the Lake Whatcom Watershed.
WCC
crews have lasting impacts on Bellingham. In addition to their work for the
City of Bellingham, Washington Conservation Corps Crews must complete a
week-long community service project. In January 2006, City of Bellingham WCC
Crews conducted an infant food and supply drive for the Bellingham Food
Bank. The food drive exceeded its formula goal by 1.5 times and collected
hundreds of other targeted items; in all the combined value of collected
donations totaled almost $12,500. During the food drive, the WCC crew also
paired up with students from the Homeport Learning Center to build 14 large
storage boxes. In recognition of their superior efforts on the Service
Project as well as their day-to-day work activities for the Environmental
Resources Division, City of Bellingham WCC Crews were named crew of the
quarter in April, 2006.
