This Earth Day SHADOW Lake Nature Preserve hosted a native plant celebration! This was an opportunity for participants of all ages to learn about the plants that are native to the Western Washington Coast and how they help to support our complex local ecology.

From promoting local wildlife to providing beautiful landscape that you won’t need to water, planting with native plants is a great way to show Planet Earth some love! Participants started the morning with a tour of Shadow Lake Bog where they got to glimpse some of Washington’s rarer native plants, such as Bog Laurel and Western White Pine.

After this, we returned to SHADOW’s Richter Education Center to paint pots donated by Kent’s East Hill Nursery. Each participant left with a young native plant to take home and plant in their own yard or neighborhood, thanks to a kind donation from King Conservation District. The day wrapped up with a game of ‘resource tag’, where, broken into teams of native and invasive plants, players competed for light, space, and water.

Check out photos from the event here!