For the Reporter

Equipped with shovels, gloves and 700 plants, about 50 students from the Waskowitz Environmental Leaders School (WELS) in Burien recently spent a day replanting one mile of the western bank of the Green River in Auburn.

For the fourth consecutive year, WELS students coordinated with the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks under the direction of the Washington Conservation Corps (WCC) to volunteer for the work as part of a curriculum that emphasizes environmental education and team building.

The site of the Nov. 23 planting event was the $17 million Reddington Levee Setback Project, completed in 2013 by the King County Flood Control District.

“The Reddington Levee Setback Project was done to improve flood protection to hundreds of homes and businesses and is part of a larger overall flood risk reduction and corridor improvement strategy for the lower Green River,” said Flood Control District Chair Reagan Dunn. “We greatly value the environmental stewardship of the WELS students.”

“The levee setback protects more than 300 residential properties and 275 commercial properties with a combined value of $680 million, plus several major transportation corridors from Green River flooding,” said Flood Control District Supervisor Pete von Reichbauer. “The new levee increases the channel’s ability to move flood water and migrate within a broader corridor.”

Setting back the levee created a wider riparian corridor to form new channel patterns and complex salmon habitat that benefit from the vegetation planted. The plants also control erosion along the bank, making it more stable and improving flood protection.

An additional 3,200 plants will be planted by WCC crews throughout the entire project site this year.