More than 40 King County Realtors will shift their attention from listing and selling homes to landscaping Friday, Oct. 23. The volunteers with The Realtors Environmental Council (TREC) are expected to plant up to 600 native specimens at a wetland nature park near the heart of urban Bellevue.
“With this help, we will really transform the landscape surrounding the new Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center,” said Christina Krueger, park ranger in the Natural Resource Division for the city of Bellevue.
Working under the direction of Krueger and other staffers from the city of Bellevue Parks & Community Services Department, the volunteers will increase the density to “turn this urban forest into a thriving native habitat,” Krueger said.
The upcoming planting project at the Mercer Slough marks the third annual “on the ground” activity of The Realtors Environmental Council (TREC), a combined educational/volunteer initiative of the Seattle KingCounty Realtors.
Among their tasks, the Realtors will be planting sword ferns, red-flowering current, dogwood, nine-bark, salmonberry and Indian plum. They’ll also plant some trees and transplant plants.
SKCR established The Realtors Environmental Council to be a nonprofit affiliate to promote environmental stewardship among Realtors, its affiliate members and homeowners, and to support projects and policies to preserve a healthy natural habitat.
Last year, the TREC group worked on the Kelsey Creek West Tributary Restoration Project in Bellevue where they installed native trees and snags, shrubs and forbs to improve the riparian habit along 2,000 feet of the stream.
