2018-Weekday Forest Health @ Genesee Park

Start Date-End Date: 08/21/2018-08/21/2018 Land Manager Office: City and County of Denver - Parks and Recreation Land Manager Contact: Andy Perri Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Spend a Tuesday helping forests thrive! For volunteers ages 12+. Description: About the Stewardship Site: Not far from Denver off I-70, Genesee Park feels a world away with over 2,000 acres to explore. It is one of the oldest parks in the Denver Mountain Parks system and is home to the historic Beaver Brook Trail, coveted hiker-only trails, and a herd of bison! Its proximity to Denver and diverse recreation opportunities - from picnicking to backcountry hiking - make this park a popular pick with everyone from families to groups. About the Volunteer Project: Spend your Tuesday helping forests thrive in Genesee Park! Volunteers ages 12+ will take part in simple, but important, tasks designed to improve the health of native ponderosa pines and reduce the severity of wildfires. The majority of work will involve using handsaws to cut smaller trees at ground level, which will then be collected and removed from the area. Lunch will also be provided. Thank you to Apple for supporting this project! About the Overall Impact: When trees grow in clusters, they compete for moisture, nutrients, and sunlight. This weakens the trees and makes them more susceptible to bark beetles and diseases, which in turn leads to dead trees - perfect fuel for wildfires. By reducing the density of Genesee Park's ponderosa pines, volunteers will reduce the impact of wildfires and help the trees grow stronger and more resilient. Need-to-Know Details: Minors:All youth under 16mustbe accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects. Cancellation:Our land manager partners rely on VOC volunteers to accomplish critical stewardship needs, and our projects often have wait lists. If you need to cancel, pleasecontact Jamie Burkeat 303-715-1010 ext. 116 as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. Latitude/Longitude: 39.698179, -105.292188 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 40 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 26 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0 Total Volunteer Days: 26 Total Unique Volunteers: 26 Total Volunteer Hours: 184 Staff Hours: 16 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: The day started off pretty gloomy over the park. It was already windy and chilly, with even a light drizzle by 7:30AM while getting food set up. DeDe mentioned she did have a little trouble getting the Starbucks coffee donation. She arrived at the shop and an employees mentioned that we were not listed for a donation, while another person mentioned that we were listed but that it just wasn't prepared yet. Thankfully we were only picking up a traveler of coffee and some hot water so it didn't take too long. Even after calling the day before to confirm the donation there can still be some miscommunication between us and Starbucks if Garrett, their manager, knows about the donation. Andy, and his seasonals (Emma and Clint), showed up around 7:30 to help with any prep and to open the gate for folks to park their vehicles closer to the work site just in case of bad weather. A volunteer kindly let me know that I had made a typo in my informational email out to the volunteers. My typo directed people to take a wrong exit, thankfully many people found their way to the correct location. We unfortunately had 10 people not show up, it's unsure if that is related to the typo on the directions, or if they just decided to bail on the project. Regardless, the morning went smoothly and we got started at 9:10, as we were waiting for a few more people to arrive from the other exit. I stayed behind to help DeDe pack up all the food items and kitchen gear before heading down to the work area. I packed everything back into the truck in just in case the weather turned quicker than we thought, and I'm glad we did! Everything would have been soaked by the time we arrived back at the parking lot. By the time i packed everything up and said goodbye to DeDe, volunteers had already made some great progress. There were at least 10 wildlife piles made. Folks were already in a good rhythm and chugging along with the work. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. At lunch we did the raffle. There were some great items that were given away including: VOC patches, day passes to the Denver Botanic Gardens, and a free massage or facial to a spa at the Park Meadows Mall. By the end of lunch, folks were looking pretty tired, some decided to switch to weed picking for the short remainder of the afternoon. Andy I checked the radar and saw a nasty storm coming in from the west. We agreed that we would continue to work until there was a steady shower of rain. the weather was supposed to turn downhill for the rest of the day and we were going to catch part of a nasty storm. By about 1:15 the clouds began to roll in and it started to drizzle. By 1:30 the rain was coming down pretty steadily and heavily. At that point we grabbed our tools and belongings and made our way back to the parking lot. Once we made it back to the parking lot it dumped. And with the rain we had thunder and lightning. We stopped at just the right time; Andy mention that 1 out of every three trees in the park has been struck by lightning. We would have been sitting ducks for a little while if we left any later. From talking with the volunteers this was different volunteer experience for them in comparison to others, and they enjoyed their time out there. I think most of these folks will be coming out again for another project in the near future. Successes and Challenges: Successes although there is a very large area to cover along this particular hillside, for the amount of volunteers we had show up they managed to create a large dent for one smaller area. Andy was very happy with the work they were able to complete before the weather rolled in. most folks had a great attitude about the work even though it was more laborous than they were expecting. Jessica was a Crew Leader for a Day and did a great job of leading her crew and making sure everyone was having a good time but getting some good work done as well. she mentioned that she has past crew leadership experience with other organizations. Challenges had a much smaller turn than we typically have had on the forest health projects Apple dropping which hindered our numbers, and we unfortunately lost our contribution from them due to this Weather rolled in pretty early in the afternoon Our work area was littered with fallen trees, this caused us to move a little slower than previous projects simply to avoid tripping over logs or high stumps VOC's handsaws are very dull, they were not very useful for even cutting small branches Lessons Learned: For this project we moved up the schedule from 8-2, to 9-3. Thinking in regards to weather, I think it would be best to keep the original 8-2 time frame. On this project we got rained out pretty early in the afternoon (about 1:30) and were unable to continue the work the remainder of the afternoon, as the storm rolling through was progressively getting worse. If the project starts earlier then you may be able to beat the weather and storms by the time the project ends. This scope of work can get exhausting very quickly for someone who is not used to so much physical activity. Working on a very steep hillside, hiking through an areas completely covered in fallen trees, and hiking those logs uphill and/or downhill really took a toll on a few volunteers. It's a good idea to have something else for people to work on that is less labor intensive. After lunch, some folks took weed removal of Mullen and Thistle. They wanted to stay for the whole project, but making wildlife piles was becoming to tiresome for them, and this alternative worked out for them. I did not realize that I had made a typo in my informational email that got folks confused of where to go. I had put in a different exit number which got folks a little turned around of where they should be. Just a mental note to triple check those informational emails before they are sent out to ensure volunteers have the most accurate information. Special Notes: This Forest Health project was slightly different in comparison to the other Forest Health projects previously this season. Instead of cutting down sapling trees, we focused on making slash piles/wildlife piles on a hillside that had a lot of dead, fallen trees. The wildlife piles will be used by critters as shelters from the elements as well as other animals. the piles will later be burned by Denver Mountain Parks and the Nature Conservancy to get rid of the dead wood but to also return nutrients to the soil. Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: The weather was pretty gloomy in the morning, but things cleared up by the time we stared work. After lunch (12:30), the clouds began to roll back in and by 1:15 it began to drizzle. At this point Andy and I let volunteers know that if it begins to rain any heavier that we would make our way back to the vehicles. By 1:30, it began to pour. At that point we made our way down the hill and hiked back up to the cars. By the time we reached the cars it really started to dump buckets of rain. By that point there was thunder and lightning, and I think we made the right call to end when we did before we got in a thunderstorm while working. We also did not want to be caught in the field of fallen trees and have the potential of someone slipping falling on a log and hurting themselves. VOC should look into either sharpening the handsaws, or replacing them. The handsaws are extremely dull. Description of Accidents/Incidents: No accidents or incidents occurred on the project. Description of Work Completed: