The restoration work at Kincaid Ravine directly involves graduate students from the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences (SEFS) and the College of Built Environments, undergraduate classes in Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM), the UW Restoration Ecology Network and the University of Washington chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-UW). SER-UW, the Kincaid Restoration Team and EarthCorps hold 1-2 quarterly volunteer work parties in Kincaid Ravine (over 40 student volunteers participated in the autumn quarter of 2015) and the site will continue to serve as a laboratory for graduate and undergraduate students to study hydrology, soils, ecological restoration and wildlife.
SER and students in SEFS will continue to lead these volunteer opportunities and work to further develop relationships with project partners on campus, such as UW Environmental planners, UW’s landscape architect, UW Grounds crew management and non-profit groups such as Stewardship Partners and EarthCorps, who have been essential in the restoration efforts at Kincaid Ravine. Partnerships with other UW RSO’s have been formed over the past year too, including the Society for Ethnobotany and Sustainability and Stewardship for Northwest Women.
The budget amendment would fund the current student project manager and a student project manager for the 2016-2017 academic year. There has been a precedent in previous funding of this project to give a stipend to project managers of roughly 3,500 dollars for the academic year. The first three student project managers (including the current project manager) have all taken this project on as part of requirements for completing their master’s in environmental horticulture (MEH). This requires enrolling for a minimum 9 independent research credits over the course of the degree. 9 credits with an expectation of 4 hours of work per credit per week multiplied by a 10 week quarter gives you a total of 360 hours. That would equate to roughly ten dollars per hour ($3,500 stipend / 360 hours = $9.72/hour). This funding is not supposed to constitute an hourly rate, but a stipend that compensates partially for the time and energy invested in managing work at Kincaid Ravine.
Responsibilities include managing budgets and grant reporting, updating project partners on work, coordinating and leading volunteer work parties, preparing outreach materials, collecting monitoring data, creating planting plans, coordinating work plans with contractors, and leading “pet” projects such as wetland hydrology assessments, planting of pollinator gardens, “place making” and trail development. The current student project manager will far surpass the 360 hours (and 9 credits) and has actively been involved at work at Kincaid since December of 2014 without taking any compensation to date. Funding a project manager to oversee the work conducted under the budget amendment is also essential for the 2016/2017 academic year.
Ideally there will be another MEH student project manager who has to take credits and report their work to their committee as part of graduation requirements. If not, funding would be used to compensate an SER officer position at Kincaid Ravine. This will require a very detailed job description with responsibilities (similar to the ones listed above) and hour expectations for management work next year. Student project management is responsible for coordinating many student activities at Kincaid Ravine. This includes: Master’s in Landscape Architecture Interns - Two landscape architecture students have been working to put together designs for the “place making” aspects of the ravine.
The design includes trails, interpretive areas and also incorporates plans for restoration and wetland hydrology improvements into the design. UW-REN – The UW Restoration Ecology Network is in its third year working at Kincaid Ravine. This relationship has been hugely successful in bringing in students to the ravine who learn the full process of restoration from site assessment and planting plans to invasive removal, planting and planning for long term maintenance. The student project manager mentors this group and helps facilitate volunteer work parties and secures materials for the UW-REN work site. ESRM- ESRM 100 students are regular volunteers at the ravine. Intro to Restoration Ecology (ESRM 362) also uses Kincaid Ravine as a field trip site when studying restoration projects. SER-UW. The Society of Ecological Restoration UW-Chapter is a student group that is essential for recruiting volunteers and advertising events. SER-UW includes the work at Whitman Walk and the SER-UW nursery.
The partnership between the nursery and Kincaid Ravine has been especially successful over the past year. Plants are readily available on campus and donated to the ravine. Communication with nursery managers is important so they are aware of planting needs in the near future. Student involvement is very important to the work at Kincaid Ravine. This budget amendment would ensure that this connection with the student body would continue while restoration at the ravine is completed.