Wetlands restoration calls for special plants

Where do you get 14,000 native plants for under $30,000?

You could go out and dig them off somebody's property, but that's a lot of work, not very good for the land and a big risk. They could all die.

So you buy them. Until recently, the only sources for woody native plants were specialty growers outside Kitsap County.

But that began to change three years ago when Scott Edwards and Dixie Dragich decided to take the plunge back into farming.

The couple grew up together in the same Cowlitz County farming region. Both went their separate ways into adulthood and environmental careers. Then they became reacquainted, marrying four years ago.

Dragich formerly worked for the county as a watershed management expert, and now does the same work for Public Utility District No. 1. Edwards was employed by the Kitsap County Conservation District.

But now, with their one-acre operation on an old farmstead in South Kitsap, they are closer to their roots than ever and almost exactly where they've always wanted to be.

"I always wanted to have a nursery," says Edwards, but with something a little more challenging than the conventional petunias and marigolds for weekend gardeners.

Along came the wetlands alarm. What were once considered worthless swamps, the sooner covered over the better, now are recognized as fragile natural systems crucial to water quality everywhere.

It's estimated that half the state's wetlands have been lost to various kinds of development. That's part of the justification for the state policy that required Kitsap County to replace a .6-acre wetland fill adjacent to Clear Creek with 1.2 acres of new wetland.

Out went the bid request for 300 red-osier dogwood, 25 black cottonwoods, 800 willows, 600 cattails, 100 slough sedge, 100 sawbreak sedge, 100 small-fruited bullrush, and on and on.

That was a good break for Watershed Gardens, which already had almost 10,000 appropriate plants in pots, and only needed to find the delicate water plants from other growers.

The native plant business is gaining popularity not just because of large replanting projects caused by environmental regulations, but also because of heightened interest for small-scale planting.

Almost every issue of Sunset Magazine, the West's most popular reference, carries something about home landscaping with natives. And King County is considering an ordinance that would require all landscaping to contain at least 60 percent native plants, a response to the water shortage. Most non-native specialty plants are water guzzlers.

"This isn't a fad," said Edwards.

Edwards and Dragich had already done a lot of research on native plants for their jobs. And the Watershed Gardens operation is an ongoing experiment to find the right soil, the right seed and the right starting conditions for things that are used to fending for themselves in very limited territories.

"Our strategy is just to try a lot of everything and see what works," said Edwards. "That's the nature of gardening, I think."

The couple have found, for instance, that the genetics of some plants vary considerably from county to county and even between different regions of the same county.

Douglas fir stock from Kitsap County might not take to replanting in Thurston. "Some contracts even call for plant stock that's from within 25 or even 10 miles of the project," said Dragich.

Growth pressures in Kitsap are discouraging for innovators like Edwards and Dragich. Land prices may soon force the couple back even further to their roots.

They currently rent the land they live and grow on, and if they are to continue, may have to return to property they own in Cowlitz.

Property suitable for growing in Kitsap has become overpriced for specialty operations like theirs, said Dragich, which is probably why more aren't starting up here.

-- Julie McCormick