Haven't written in a couple of weeks but everything is moving ahead as planned; we ran the second orientation tour with more than 30+ students on Sept 29 for a total of around 75 volunteers; others still want to join in even though they couldn't make the Wednesday walks; as long as they can get the basic idea of what to do then they should still join in but the orientation to the whole preserve is a problem.
I drafted a 5 part work plan and am dividing the work into days depending on how many we have on any given day; today WED 10-13 was the first day we had a real crew on hand and they did a splendid job; I'm not surprised that they wanted to work back in the spring area - it is so beautiful this time of year. Good place to begin as any but it is far out and the farther out we work the harder the work is; nevertheless it was their choice and they did fine;
We have a new tool in the arsenal called a 'brush grubber' I was hoping it would pull masses of wild rose up by the root mass but the stems are too tiny for it to grab; but it was outstanding for pulling roots of porcelain berry which in the long run may be even better; porcelain berry is at its peak right now but we can really set it back with enough hands and effort;
We took extra time to give instruction about tool safety and working together and then took half hour or so to walk to the site; that didn't leave us with much time but in a little more than an hour what a great job they did;
Before and after pictures are some of my favorites and so here is were we started; (-the spring is in the middle of the photo-)
and here is how it looked when we finished!
Now it is possible to get visitors to walk to the edge and see all the drama of that cold, clear-flowing artesian spring; people can't help but be fascinated by its flow; the best descriptor 'simply mesmerizing'; it is a marvel of nature and a tribute to nature in this great valley.
We talked a bit about stabilizing some the collapsing banks of the spring with some natural stone but that is something that would need to be planned very carefully. Sometime the old adage is true - "if it ain't broke don't try to fix it"
These students have to be proud of their accomplishment even if it only took them an hour; When they get back and show what they did in a short time then I can guess how the rest of the group will be encouraged. Next time I write I need to post the work plan to this blog but I'll have to do that from the office computer;
I'll try to write the results from each week and show the progress we make across the field season. My congratulations to this first work crew which chose wisely and had a terrific first encounter with this great park.
