Stewardship Squad has become a big Cedar River fan! As it should be since half of us, as Seattle-Metro folks, get our drinking water from it- not to mention all the salmon that call it home. We worked at King County Park's Belmondo Reach Natural Area to mulch native plants in the restoration site. Everyone made new friends while hauling, filling, chatting & dumping.
The drought this year is hard on such plantings. It made for a low fun river to swim in though, almost all of the parents jumped in too! The current was ideal for a fun-ride to the rock islands. In the bank above you could spot a coal-seam hinting at the mining that once took place in the area. In fact, this site was a village that supplied miners. Today however, the only coal we handled was dispersing illegal fire rings before high-tailing-it into the warm waters to play.
In addition to a wriggly stonefly nymph, we saw a plump garter snake with a distinctive red/orange stripe and tongue. Neither were very skittish. You can see the snakes of WA on the Burke Museum's website.