Description
Start Date-End Date: 11/11/2017-11/11/2017
Land Manager Office:
Land Manager Contact: Michael Clausen
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Willow harvesting at the Cemex property in Lyons. The willows harvested will be used in the ongoing flood restoration projects along St. Vrain Creek, specifically used to support stream bank stabilization. Plantings will take place in early spring.
Description: Willow harvesting at the Cemex property in Lyons. The willows harvested will be used in the ongoing flood restoration projects along St. Vrain Creek, specifically used to support stream bank stabilization. Plantings will take place in early spring.
Latitude/Longitude: 40.160730, -104.985436
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 30
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 5
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 29
Total Volunteer Days: 34
Total Unique Volunteers: 34
Total Volunteer Hours: 204
Staff Hours: 11
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: On November 11th, 2017 29 Cairn Youth, and 6 Adults drove out to the Cemex cement plant just outside of Lyons CO, to harvest coyote willows. This project was in partnership with AloTerra, who works closely with the St. Vrain Creek Coalition, in the restoration of the waterways in Lyons CO. The goal, which was met, was to harvest 800 pristine willow stalks, to round out the 5,000 needed for Apple Valley South, creek restoration project. Michael from AloTerra provided some wonderful educational components about the important role willows play in stream-bank stabilization, as well as talked about the other facets that go into any river/creek restoration project.
While this is fast and easy work, the participants were asked to really focus on the quality of willows that they were collecting. They worked in pairs, to clip and "pretty-up" the willow stalks. We requested that they pair up with someone they didn't know very well, and get to know their partner. At the end of the work day, they had to introduce their partner to the rest of the group using only three words. For example- "This is Garrett. Sarcastic, Soccer, Sustainability." We then broke into small groups to discuss what kinds of projects they hope will be on the list for the Cairn Final Project, that they get to vote on during the December mee-up.
Successes and Challenges: For a last minute project, this worked out well (our orignal project with Boulder County fell through last minute due to staff shortages). While there was a little more down-time than I had anticipated, we were able to fill that with small and large group development and discussion opportunites.
Challenges, this is a hard working group who get things done well and quickly. It is a challenge to get some land managers to understand that. Also, as someone who is still new and has not done a large variety of projects, I still have to go off the time frame that the land manager suggests for projects and plan our schedule around that. That said, I now know for harvesting projects similar to this, this group only needed about 1hr and 30 min to gather 800 plants.
Lessons Learned: This group needed to be able to harvest at least 1000-2000 willows.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 14 and older |
