Islander Angela Schonbok was one of about a dozen volunteers who turned out for an ambitious work party held by the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, which recently got a $5,000 grant from REI to restore the watershed.

Volunteers planted about 400 trees. All told, the land trust hopes to plant 2,000 cedars and firs, part of an effort to restore a coniferous forest in the alder-dominated basin, said Abel Eckhardt, the organization’s land steward.

The work is challenging because of the watershed’s steep terrain. “You’re going down super steep slopes and navigating your way through salmonberry with trees and shovels. It’s not what most people are used to doing,” he said.

The land trust hopes to get all the trees planted by mid-March.