Community members have helped significantly reduce the blackberry population and replant about 200 native plants around Ebright Creek.

The community volunteer events to restore nearly an acre around the creek in Ebright Creek Park began in early October.

Long-time Sammamish resident Patricia Elkoury grabbed a shovel and joined the other 30 volunteers in digging up invasive blackberries Saturday morning.

Elkoury, 32, was inspired by some of the environmental classes she’s taking at University of Washington to clean up the area.

“I thought, if I wanted to get real experience, I better just get out there and do it,” she said.

Elkoury, who has volunteered for other restoration projects within the city, said she will apply the experience of uprooting invasive plants and replacing them with native species to the restoration of her own back yard.

While some volunteers cleared the area, others carried buckets of mulch to native plants that volunteers planted during a previous event.

Several Washington Native Plant Society stewards were on site helping people identify which plants to uproot. They also provided additional information about native shrubs and trees.

Plant society stewards go through a free training program and as a way to repay that free training commit time to a specific project. There were two teams of five on site helping execute the restoration plan.

“Right now, as you look at it,” said steward Michelle Cranwell Walter, indicating the work area around the creek Saturday morning, “it has been completely overrun by Himalayan Blackberries, and they cover up the native species.”

Invasive species, like the Himalayan Blackberry, sprawl across an area cobbling up and out competing other plants.

At Ebright Creek, some of the native plants volunteers were placing throughout the work area included the Oregon Grape and the sword fern.

Cranwell Walter, of Issaquah, showed volunteers how to surround the newly planted native shrubbery with mulch.

The mulch helps insulate the plant, keeping it warm, and it helps the plant retain moisture. Retaining moisture is particularly crucial in the summer, when the area is drier.

Native plants, unlike the invasive blackberry, help stop erosion because they root deeply in the ground.

The variety of plants provides better shelter and food sources for insects, birds or other animals living there.

When invasive species overtake an area, it creates a monoculture, Sammamish volunteer coordinator Elby Jones said.

“It basically chokes everything out,” Jones said, referring to the invasive plant.

Community members can join in restoring the creek March 21 at 9 a.m.