By Roy Morris and Dr. Nancy Messmer

Clallam Bay Sekiu Lions and Friends of Hoko River State Park

On Sept. 22, eleven members of the Olympic Orchard Society, led by Marilyn Couture, came west to the Heritage Orchard at Hoko River State Park. They spread out and accomplished many tasks, including pruning the nine apple trees and weeding the fenced enclosures.

In 2016, OOS members collected scion from Olympic National Park heritage homesteads, grafted them, brought them up to size and distributed them to local farms. In 2017, OOS relocated ten heritage apple trees to the Cowan Ranch. Friends of Hoko River State Park /Clallam Bay Sekiu Lions built fencing for each tree and have been nurturing the trees since they were planted in 2018. In the spring of 2023, a team from OOS came to the orchard to assist with advice, pruning, weeding and fence repair and advice.

The Orchard Society continuously researches the origin of various trees on the Olympic Peninsula and sometimes revises their original identifications. This year, they brought new tags with updated information for each tree. A team installed the new tags.

OOS volunteers came to work on the trees and to create a newly designed, elk resistant fenced enclosure. The elk and deer have been brutal on the fencing and the trees. OOS member, Joe Preusser, was sure there was a better solution for elk-resistant fencing, so he researched possibilities, and planned to build a new enclosure that would protect one of the growing apple trees.

The plan required new fixtures, equipment, lots of measuring and geometry and leveling as the team built the enclosure. Hours and hours of labor and problem-solving produced a completed elk-resistant enclosure. The OOS volunteers view this design and installation as an experiment, so they are eager to see the results next summer. We hope this will be an example of a protective fencing model that will be appreciated and replicated by visitors and nearby orchardists as they observe and learn about it.

The Clallam Bay Sekiu Lions Club/Friends of Hoko River Orchard Project is designed to grow food and farmers, working with regenerative farming practices to grow healthy food and build community collaborations here on the Olympic Peninsula. We hope that other Lions Clubs and Community Groups will work with us on building eight more tree enclosures as well as volunteering in the Heritage Garden. The Clallam Bay Sekiu Lions thank Marilyn Couture and the volunteers from the Olympic Orchard Society.