Dick Vasel and his wife moved to Auburn six months ago from a small city on the flat, brown plains of western Oklahoma, where a tree that achieves more than six feet in height is a local oddity.

Last Saturday, Vasel planted trees and shrubs on a recently-reconstructed part of the Fenster levee next to the Green River in east Auburn. At his back were evergreens that beggared anything he ever saw back home.

Vasel was part of a work party from First United Methodist Church that gave up part of its Saturday to put in some old fashioned, hands-in in-the-muck, pick-and-shovel work.

“We really enjoy the environment here,” Vasel said.

King County’s River and Floodplain Management Section and the City of Auburn are working together on the Fenster Levee Setback Project, said Sarah McCarthy the department’s senior ecologist for the Green and White rivers.

“The ground we are standing on here is the newly setback levee,” said McCarthy. “It goes all the way along there. The levee used to be right along the river’s edge. We removed that levee last summer and excavated a couple hundred feet. By doing this, we are allowing the river to move into its floodplain, so we are giving it more room to move around during a flood. It also provides habitat for fish as they are coming through the river.”

The first phase of setback work started in 2003.

“The same group came out and helped us replant the area,” McCarthy said. “And you can see a lot of the plants have grown quite well. This is phase two of the project, and we are hoping to continue the project into phase three and continue to set the levee back. I think it should be done in the next couple of years.”

John Koon of the Water and Land Resources Division of the King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, gestured to what looked at first glance like a muddy field stubbled with tombstones but was actually potted plants.

“What you see here is what we have actually excavated to create more lowland,” said Koon. “This used to be a pasture, and we installed logs along the river and then created a little channel down there to create habitat especially for juvenile salmon to escape high flows in the river. Now we are working on the revegetation part where we are planting native trees and shrubs.”

Brad Beeman, Brad, Pastor at First United Methodist Church explained why the project fired up his team.

“We’re part of the community, and this church is well known for its community service,” Beeman said. “We planted this whole area here in 2004, and we just feel like this is part of what we do in the community, I walk the trail here almost every day. I told John Koon this is like our garden as well, and we are going to take care of it.”

Evan Bailey, 12, Boy Scout First Class from Troop 711 in Maple Valley, volunteered his time as well. He needs community service hours to earn his star, the next step on the road to Eagle Scout.

“It’s hard work, but it’s going OK,” Bailey said.

Then the young man chuckled. Seems he’d found a way entertain himself, by bestowing names on the trees he had planted.

“That’s Paco, that’s Taco, and that guy over there, that’s Bob,” said Bailey, pointing.