Standing in a circle on a Tacoma neighborhood street, several young crew members gather near a habitat site to stretch, exchange safety tips, and take part in an icebreaker to prepare for the difficult workday ahead.
The crew is from EarthCorps, a Seattle-based nonprofit that cultivates leaders and community partnerships to advance environmental justice, forming crews of young adults for an annual environmental leadership development and green-jobs training program.
Their destination is Upper Clear Creek, a Port of Tacoma-owned wetland habitat where they will help remove invasive species as part of the Port’s ongoing stewardship and restoration efforts.
After pulling on waders and loading equipment, they begin the somewhat challenging journey to the site, navigating dense vegetation and nearly waist-high water before boarding a small boat to reach their destination.
“The water is pretty murky, and we can’t really see where we’re stepping,” said Conor Zeutzius, EarthCorps crew leader. “Traversing is a challenge.”
Several times each summer, conservation crews make this trip to help control reed canary grass, an aggressive invasive plant that threatens the ecological health of the wetland.
"It forms these dense mats of monoculture and outcompetes our native species," said Port of Tacoma Biologist Brynden Gorman. "It creates a lot of sediment buildup that isn’t great for native species and doesn’t provide essential habitat like our native plant species do."
Reed canary grass is a perennial plant that can grow up to six feet tall and thrives in the water-saturated soils common to wetlands like Upper Clear Creek. The invasive plant reduces biodiversity, traps sediment, and can constrict waterways, making active management necessary to maintain ecological balance in wetland habitats. While finding and removing it is physically demanding work, it’s essential to maintaining a healthy and diverse habitat.
“Wetlands are important for nutrient cycling and filtering out pollutants,” said Isabella Fehringer, an EarthCorps crew member. “They host a lot of insect, bird, and fish life.”
Upper Clear Creek is one of approximately 20 habitat sites managed by the Port of Tacoma, representing more than 200 acres of restored and protected habitat throughout the region. Habitat restoration is a key part of the Port’s environmental stewardship program, helping balance industrial operations with long-term investments in healthy ecosystems that support fish, wildlife, and native plant species.
Today, Upper Clear Creek looks much different than when restoration efforts began nearly ten years ago. The site was originally designed to include emergent wetlands, a type of wetland dominated by herbaceous plants that grow above the water’s surface. A few years ago, however, the landscape changed dramatically when a family of beavers moved in.
“The beavers created dams and flooded the area, which inundated emergent species,” Gorman said. “So we have deeper water and a lot more ponds that provide habitat for aquatic birds.”
Deeper water also provides important habitat for juvenile salmon, allowing them to feed and grow in a protected environment before migrating downstream to the Puget Sound.
Partnerships are critical to maintaining the Port’s habitat sites. Through collaborations with organizations like EarthCorps, Northwest Youth Corps, and Washington Conservation Corps, the Port can care for habitat sites across the region while also supporting the next generation of environmental professionals.
“It’s good for us to be able to build these leadership and habitat restoration skills,” Zeutzius said. “A lot of people in this job want to continue into some sort of natural resource role, and this is a good system to build those connections with professionals in the field.”
Even though Upper Clear Creek is in the final year of its decade-long monitoring program, Gorman says the stewardship activities will continue to manage invasive species and ensure native plants thrive.
“The goal is to keep it. Keep it natural, keep it native, keep it functioning.”