2019-Mother's Day Pollinator Planting @ Mattive Open Space in Brighton

Start Date-End Date: 05/11/2019-05/11/2019 Land Manager Office: Brighton, City of Land Manager Contact: Bob Woods Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: Help create Colorado's "Pollinator Highway" on this family-friendly project. *WAIT LIST ONLY* Description: Project photo by Jessica Hughes PLEASE NOTE:This project is full! Please contactcontact Emily Schaeferat 303-715-1010 ext. 116.to be added to the wait list. Where You'll Be: Located about 30 miles northeast of Denver, the Wayne & Dorothy Mattive Open Space sits in the City of Brighton just a few miles from Barr Lake State Park and Interstate 76. Last year, state lawmakers designated I-76 as a "Pollinator Highway" in order to raise awareness about the Monarch Butterfly migration route and other pollinator species. The new initiative - created in collaboration by the state of Colorado, the Butterfly Pavilion, and People and Pollinators Action Network (PPAN) - will introduce more flowering plants and native species along the corridor, including in Mattive Open Space, to provide crucial habitat for migrating pollinators. What You'll Do: Volunteers aged 10+ are invited to join us on Mother's Day weekend to plant a new Pollinator Garden in Brighton's Mattive Open Space. You'll spend the day prepping and installing four plant beds containing native grasses and plants across 2.5 acres and, time permitting, removing invasive plants and re-seeding the area. Not far from the Denver Metro area, this is a fun and easy volunteer opportunity for everyone! Breakfast and lunch will be provided and partners fromthe Butterfly Pavilion and Brighton Bloomin' Buddies Garden Clubwill be on site to help, answer questions, and talk about the plant selections. Why It Matters: Your participation will provide much-needed habitat for pollinators in the face of continued development. These species - primarily bees, but also other insects such as flies and beetles, as well as birds and bats - are critical to supporting statewide agriculture and a healthy ecosystem. Need-to-Know Details: Minors under 16 must be accompanied by an adult 21 years or older on single-day projects. Cancellation:Our partners rely on VOC volunteers to accomplish critical stewardship needs, and our projects often have wait lists. If you need to cancel, pleasecontact Emily Schaeferat 303-715-1010 ext. 116 as soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. About Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is the state's oldest, largest, and leading outdoor stewardship nonprofit organization. Founded in 1984 to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado's natural resources, VOC has engaged nearly 120,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $24 million. Through award-winning youth and volunteer programs, leadership training, capacity-building programs, and collaborative efforts with nonprofits and land management agencies, VOC is an invaluable resource in Colorado, especially as our outdoor stewardship needs are approaching near-crisis levels. For more information, visit www.voc.org or call 303-715-1010. Latitude/Longitude: 39.974991, -104.798274 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Easy High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 25 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 23 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 1 Total Volunteer Days: 24 Total Unique Volunteers: 24 Total Volunteer Hours: 204 Staff Hours: 17 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: This Mother's Day VOC partnered with the City of Brighton Parks and Open Space Department to create pollinator friendly habitat at the Wayne and Dorothy Mattive Open Space. In 2018, state lawmakers designated I-76 - including Mattive Open Space - as a "Pollinator Highway" to raise awareness about the Monarch Butterfly migration route and other pollinator species. This new initiative, created in collaboration with the state of Colorado, the Butterfly Pavilion, and People and Pollinators Action Network (PPAN), will introduce more flowering plants and native species along the corridor to provide crucial habitat for migrating pollinators. Volunteers spent the day planting pollinator-friendly shrubs and spreading mulch to suppress weeds and delineate the new "habitat islands". Volunteers arrived on site between 7:00-8:00AM, registered and had a light breakfast provided by VOC Crew Chef Gail Ferber. At 8:00, VOC project manager Alex Williams gave a welcome and orientation speech and then Open Space Manager Kyle Sylvester talked about the site and the objective of the project. Two passionate pollinator promoters from the Butterfly Pavilion talked about the importance of pollinators and their habitats and explained why certain plants were selected. Crew leader Gordon Carruth gave a demonstration on how to plant the various shrubs and by 8:30AM volunteers were off to work. Over the course of this 6-hour project more than 124 pollinator friendly shrubs and bushed were planted, and 30 cubic yards of weed suppressing mulch was spread over approximately 1000 square feet of ground. This is a remarkable accomplishment given that only 20 volunteers were present, and the soil was in places extremely hard. Project partners were very happy with the quality and amount of work accomplished and they have high hopes for future collaborations with VOC. Successes and Challenges: Successes: This was a unique project with an extremely timely objective: saving our pollinators. Unlike trail projects, which are aimed at recreationists, this project will ultimately benefit birds, butterflies, bees, and the thousands of plant species that rely on them to fruit - not to mention the millions of Coloradans whose food security is directly reliant on a healthy population of pollinators. The project filled rapidly in part because of its unique objective and in part because it was pitched as a "Mother's Day" project. It is likely that future iterations will exceed the success of the inaugural project thanks to an increasing awareness of the importance of pollinators. This project proved to be very successful in terms of generating new memberships, either because of the nature of the work or the small number of volunteers, which allowed for a personal ask of nearly every participant. Close to half of all participants made a donation to VOC. Challenges: Despite filling up rapidly and generating a lengthy wait-list, turnout was lower than expected. This may be because Brighton is close to several population centers and volunteers did not need to commit significant time and energy to preparing for and getting to the site, and as a result they may not have felt highly committed to the project. (Turn-out may have been a blessing in disguise; had the anticipated number of volunteers been in attendance the primary work would have been completed by noon and the afternoon would have been spent weeding.) The soil was very hard in parts of the site, possibly because of the compaction due to past agricultural use of the land. This made hole digging a slow process despite a relatively wet spring and recent rains, and only the strongest volunteers were able to swing their pick-mattocks hard enough to make steady progress. The VOC staff member, crew leader, and City of Brighton staff all noticed several volunteers exhibiting fatigue due to the effort required in penetrating the soil. Lessons Learned: As noted under "Successes and Challenges", this was a very good project for generating new memberships. Success can probably be attributed to the meaningful work and the small number of participants. A motorized auger would be useful in the future, especially if there hasn't been much precipitation prior to the project. Special Notes: NA Stewardship Education: The Butterfly Pavilion was present and gave a very informative presentation on pollinators and their habitat. They were engaging and humorous and made the importance of the work clear. They would be excellent partners to invite to any future pollinator habitat projects. Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: There is no shade at the site and we were lucky to have the relief of an overcast afternoon, without which heat exhaustion and sunburns would have been real threats. Description of Accidents/Incidents: NA Description of Work Completed: