2018-November- Cairn @ St. Vrain

Start Date-End Date: 11/03/2018-11/03/2018 Land Manager Office: CPW - St. Vrain State Park Land Manager Contact: Scott Reffel Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Russian Olive and Tamarisk Removal @ St. Vrain with ELK and WRV Description: Russian Olive and Tamarisk Removal @ St. Vrain with ELK, WRV, & CYL Latitude/Longitude: 40.160730, -104.985436 Additional Information: n/a Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Easy High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 40 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 11 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 48 Total Volunteer Days: 59 Total Unique Volunteers: 59 Total Volunteer Hours: 356 Staff Hours: 19.5 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: VOC's Cairn group partnered with CPW, Environmental Learning for Kids, and WVR's Wild program for this half-day project at St. Vrain State Park. This is our second year in a row out at St. Vrain with ELK for a stewardship project, and being that VOC is a part of the Youth Exploring Stewardship Coalition, it seemed fitting to invite other groups. 48 youth and 11 adults volunteered to help clear young Tamarisk and Russian Olive from the shoreline of Great Egret Pond. This area of the park is currently closed to the public, but CPW is in the process of developing it and hope to place a visitor center close to the pond. Part of the first phase of getting the area ready for future public trails and facilities is to minimize the growth of invasive species and optimize the growth of native plants. The youth worked hard on this project from 9:00-1:30 pm, partnering up to dig-up and bag 3 ft. or taller Tamarisk and Russian Olive. The group filled over 30 large trash bags full of these noxious weeds, which we then helped Scott Reffel of CPW take and dump out at the burn pile. Successes and Challenges: Successes: At the start of the day and during lunch we did two ice breakers to get the youth from the various groups to start mingling. The partner work also went well when we encouraged them to work with someone they didn't know well. Scott and Juan from CPW did a great job at educating the students on the importance of the work as well as a good demonstration for how to i.d. and remove each plant properly. Challenges: This didn't impact our numbers too negatively, nor our ability to get good work done, but two other groups (CYL and SOS Outreach) had hoped to join us but had difficulty finding mentor support- thus didn't have transportation for their youth. Maybe next year we can budget for a third van for these types of programs for youth who want to join outside of Cairn. Lessons Learned: Pixies would have been nice to have to get down easier to the tap roots. Special Notes: Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: