# Student-Led Conservation Takes Center Stage at Sehome Hill Arboretum Board Meeting The Sehome Hill Arboretum Board of Governors gathered on November 21, 2024, for their regular monthly meeting, welcoming an enthusiastic presentation from Western Washington University's new Ecological Restoration Club and advancing a long-debated university website project. The meeting, conducted via Zoom with five board members present, opened with the traditional land acknowledgement recognizing the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) and Nooksack peoples' ancestral connection to Sehome Hill. Board Chair John Tuxel led the session, with members Steve (City Parks), Wayne Galloway (Western Facilities), Travis, Jenna Kelling, and Traci Rogstad (Western representative) in attendance. The meeting began with an immediate agenda modification to prioritize public comment from student visitors, setting the tone for an evening focused on youth engagement and institutional collaboration. ## WWU Ecological Restoration Club Presents Vision for Arboretum Work Caleb Barville, Executive Director of Western's newly-formed Ecological Restoration Club, delivered an energetic presentation outlining ambitious plans for student-led restoration work throughout the arboretum. Speaking with the passion of someone who walks the Jersey Street trail daily, Barville explained that the club had just launched this fall quarter after months of planning. "We're looking forward to hopefully working with the Sehome Hill Arboretum board of governors to get some much needed work done in the arboretum specifically around invasive species removal and replacing that with native plants," Barville explained as he shared slides detailing the club's fundraising efforts and goals. The club's objectives are comprehensive: funding student-led restoration projects, reimbursing students for carpooling to volunteer work parties, providing food after work sessions to boost retention, and establishing a speaker series that has already drawn 35 students to recent events. They've also made Western Washington University a member of the Society for Ecological Restoration, connecting local students to national restoration networks. Barville highlighted their partnership with Western's LEAD program and collaboration with organizations like Whatcom Land Trust and Nooksack Enhancement Association. "We're seeing great success, and a lot of students are turning out and really interested in that. So it's pretty great to see. And I see this going a long ways," he said. ### The Jersey Street Trail Challenge Drawing from his daily experience as a Sehome neighborhood resident, Barville presented a detailed analysis of problems along the heavily-used Jersey Street trail. Using a 2014 invasive species distribution map, he showed board members the concentration of English ivy along the trail corridor and proposed a multi-pronged approach: removing invasive species, replanting with natives, and addressing the trail's chronic muddy conditions through gravel installation. "During the fall, winter and spring the trail becomes a muddy mess," Barville explained, describing how it takes "at least 2 weeks of no rain for it to become not mud." His presentation included stark photos of the trail's condition, showing deep mud that clearly challenges the estimated 500-plus daily commuters between Jersey Street and Western's campus. The proposal sparked immediate technical discussion from city staff. Steve from City Parks raised permitting concerns: "I can tell you one word that comes into my mind is stormwater. Because placing gravel on a dirt trail if you hit a certain threshold, it triggers a stormwater permit because it's impervious." Wayne Galloway from Western Facilities agreed, noting the broader policy implications: "Which trails would we want to be adjusting from the natural trails to a gravel trail and would this be the first one we would do?" The discussion revealed the complexity of trail management, touching on ADA accessibility, maintenance costs, and classification standards. ### Safety Concerns Emerge Beyond muddy conditions, Barville raised a more serious issue that caught the attention of city staff. Over his four years using the trail, he's observed concerning structural changes: "I have noticed some slumping. Are you familiar with the spot kind of in the middle of the trail where a landslide happened in the past? I think the landslide was 100 plus years ago, but there is a couple of pilings in the ground, and then a few 2x4s backing it that are supporting the trail. I have noticed that those have slumped over the last couple of years." The description prompted immediate clarification from board members about the specific location, distinguishing it from a known rock slide area on the Huntoon Trail. Barville emphasized the severity: "That's the steepest section of slope. I think that is a slope over over 50 degrees too." ## Board Response: Enthusiasm with Realistic Timeline Board members welcomed the club's initiative while setting realistic expectations about timeline and process. Chair Tuxel emphasized the importance of follow-up maintenance: "One of the experiences we've had in the Arboretum with ivy removal is that it usually takes a couple of years of coming back to a site to re pull ivy that has resprouted from root systems where you don't get all the root systems the first time." Steve from City Parks connected the students with existing programs: "I believe there's planning of early, you know, late spring, maybe early spring, late winter work party, probably in March to do some restoration of the South Bridge trail." He encouraged coordination with city staff Ryan Roby and Freya in the Parks volunteer program. Wayne Galloway volunteered Western Facilities' tool collection for student projects, and Tuxel offered himself as a board liaison for specific site identification and native plant species consultation. The response demonstrated the board's commitment to supporting student-led conservation while ensuring proper coordination with existing management frameworks. Steve also offered to install trail counters to gather usage data for the Jersey Street trail: "If you're interested, I could put a trail counter on it, and we could get some counts on how many people are actually using it. And maybe that'll help our decision making." ## Longhouse Construction Update: Progress and Parking Concerns The meeting included updates on the ongoing Longhouse construction project, with mixed news about progress and access. Construction appears on track for completion by November 2025, with concrete footings now in place and log frame construction scheduled to begin in December. However, parking arrangements remain problematic. While new upper parking areas are complete, they're being used as construction staging areas and won't be available to arboretum visitors until construction finishes. A concerning development involves unfinished parking areas on the left side of the entrance that remain under city rather than university control. "That area was leveled, it was not paved. So it's still dirt and gravel. We don't know what's going to happen to it because it's not monitored by Western, it's not being controlled by users of the arboretum," one board member noted. The stormwater detention vault landscaping also remains unresolved, with ongoing questions about what vegetation can be planted over the infrastructure and who will fund and maintain it. ## WWU Arboretum Website Gets Conditional Approval After years of development, the board moved toward approving publication of a student-created Western Washington University arboretum website. David Engebretson Jr., Digital Technologies Accessibility Coordinator, presented the case for making the site live at arboretum.wwu.edu. Engebretson emphasized student success: "What that would do then is allow students who have been working diligently on this for years to actually be able to reference certain parts of the texts that they've worked on so they can share that in their resume." The proposal faced scrutiny from board members concerned about potential confusion with the official city website and the ongoing maintenance burden. Travis raised fundamental questions about site identity: "I think it's better for web users to have one website where they know that this is the official website with the official information, which I think is the COB one." Jenna, as a newer board member, expressed hesitation about approving without fuller review: "I haven't looked at this before in any detail." ### Compromise Solution Emerges After extensive discussion about content accuracy, update responsibilities, and user clarity, the board crafted a compromise solution. Traci Rogstad from Western suggested: "How about a motion to approve the publishing as long as with the board being able to review and provide recommended edits on a quarterly basis?" The final motion established a rapid review process: Engebretson would make agreed-upon changes emphasizing the site's student-authored nature and linking appropriately to official city resources, then circulate the revised site to board members for email review and vote by December 6, 2024. Engebretson committed to making the changes himself given the tight timeline, noting that students would be arriving for winter quarter work soon after New Year's. The board's conditional approval reflected both support for student work and responsibility for public information accuracy. ## Invasive Species Alert Tabled Chair Tuxel briefly mentioned discovering a growing population of Siberian elm along Arboretum Drive above the Longhouse construction site, describing it as now forming a grove with some trees reaching 12 inches in diameter. The invasive species control discussion was tabled for January's meeting due to time constraints. ## Meeting Conclusion and Next Steps The November meeting concluded with several action items and timeline commitments. The Ecological Restoration Club received encouragement to coordinate with existing city and university programs while developing their invasive species removal plans. The website project moved forward with a December review deadline, and several ongoing construction and policy issues were carried forward to January's meeting. Board Chair Tuxel closed by tabling revision of the land acknowledgement and other old business items until January, acknowledging the substantial work done by Travis and Wayne on those initiatives. The meeting adjourned with expressions of gratitude and wishes for happy Thanksgiving. The evening highlighted the arboretum's role as both a natural preserve and educational laboratory, with student energy driving new conservation initiatives while experienced board members provided institutional knowledge and realistic guidance. The intersection of academic enthusiasm and public land management responsibilities created productive tensions that promise continued collaboration in 2025.