More than 100 residents planted several hundred trees and shurbs on a one-acre downtown site next to Bear Creek on Saturday as part of the Northwest Adopt A Stream Foundation program.

“Plants next to Bear Creek provide shade that helps keep water temperature cool just the way salmon like it,” said Adopt A Stream Foundation director Tom Murdoch. “The roots hold soil in place, and leaves and twigs that fall into the creek become food for micro-organisms, which become food for underwater insects, which become food for fish. Everything is connected together.”

On Saturday, volunteers helped make those connections with the guidance from Adopt A Stream Foundation ecologists and technicians, City of Redmond Public Works biologists, and Earth Corps youths.