The Washington Native Plant Society is partnering with Bellevue and other cities to train local volunteers in plant stewardship.

The effort will give people an opportunity to learn native plant identification, ecology, and restoration skills from expert instructors, and then volunteer with a small team from the class to restore a local natural area.

Training will be from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Fridays from April 16 through June 25. There also will be three Saturday field trips.

The training will be given at Lewis Creek Park in Bellevue.

The training is free, but in exchange, Native Plant Stewards commit to providing at least 75 hours on a restoration project and 25 hours help for the Washington Native Plant Society, using skills they’ve learned. Teams of stewards will get to design and implement their own restoration management plans for a specific site within East King County.

The application deadline is March 16. Early applicants will be interviewed March 5; all others will be interviewed March 19.

To apply, download an application from www.wnps.org – under What’s New.