It’s Hannah again, your local Straightaway Cocktails B Keeper!
Recently, Straightaway Cocktails proudly collaborated with Brew Dr Kombucha, LGBTQ+ Outdoors, and Rivian to support the Tualatin Riverkeepers. This joint effort aimed to aid the Tualatin Riverkeepers’ mission of preserving and protecting the natural spaces and resources within the Tualatin Watershed.
Brew Dr celebrated their partnership with LGBTQ+ Outdoors and the debut of their Love Kombucha labels by putting together this volunteer event and invited Brew Dr, Straightaway Cocktails and Rivian staff to join them. A portion of the proceeds from Love Kombucha sales will support LGBTQ+ Outdoors in their mission to build community for LGBTQ+ outdoor enthusiasts.
Together, we spent the day helping to remove invasive species of plants that have taken over the native plants and their habitats.
The Tualatin Riverkeepers led us out into a beautiful forested area in the Dirksen Nature Park which features multiple distinct natural zones including wetlands, mature forests, and prairies. It was a perfect day for the event - the sun was out, the birds were singing, and the breeze was cool. We split up into groups to cover more ground and ended up clearing English Ivy and Holly from a large section of forested area.
Tualatin Riverkeeper Guides explained to us that English Ivy and Holly are both non-native plants that will take over and will deplete the resources for the other native plants. We also learned from our guides that removing them, although helpful, will never fully eradicate them from the area and they will regrow over time. Removing them will be a continual maintenance process. This means they are always looking for more volunteers to help!
We were shown which plants to uproot and which were native plants that they wanted to protect. All the gear and the tools were graciously provided by Tualatin Riverkeepers and we dug right in! Literally!
The overall experience not only felt meaningful and important to do for the environment, but also quickly became a special celebration of coming together as a united community. Joining forces for good is what Straightaway Cocktails prides itself on and getting to meet other companies and organizations with like-minded values makes the work all the better and even more enjoyable.
Thank you to everyone involved, we look forward to the next time we can all come together! If you would like to learn more about any of these organizations and their missions, please click on the links embedded in this blog post.
If you would like to donate to or volunteer with Tualatin Riverkeepers to help in similar ways that we did, please click here to see their page on how to be involved
