Two year after partners pledged to restore and conserve Julia’s Gulch, blackberries have been banished and birds have returned to the Northeast Tacoma slope. The Port of Tacoma, City of Tacoma and Schnitzer Steel partnered in 2007 to buy the 31-acre parcel and fund its stewardship with the Cascade Land Conservancy. Since then, the Friends of Julia’s Gulch have cleared garbage, removed invasive blackberries and ivy, and planted native vegetation. For more information, visit http://www.juliasgulch.org/default.aspx .