By Sequim Gazette Staff

About 20 volunteers showed up Feb. 18 to plant 500 Douglas-fir and western red cedar trees on four acres of land near Morse Creek.

The North Olympic Salmon Coalition organized the effort on the Morse Creek Restoration Site, owned by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Volunteer coordinator Kai Wallin said the trees were planted to create a healthy forest environment to foster a healthy stream ecosystem.

“We’re trying to help nature along,” she said.

The 130-acre site has 21 engineered log jams installed along 1,700 feet of the creek. The section of creek was successfully altered back to its natural path in 2010 after the former property owner diverted it into a channel in the 1930s.

The coalition’s goal is to improve the habitat for fish to restore healthy salmon runs.

For more information on the site and other salmon recovery efforts, go to www.nosc.org.