Description
Start Date-End Date: 07/30/2021-07/30/2021
Land Manager Office: CPW - Golden Gate Canyon State Park
Land Manager Contact: Jake Murray
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Help remove noxious weeds at Golden Gate Canyon State Park!
Description: Where You'll Be:
Only a short drive from Denver, Golden Gate Canyon State Park boasts over 12,000 acres of dense forest, rocky peaks, and aspen-rimmed meadows laced with miles of trails. With options for hikers, mountain bikers, backpackers, equestrians, anglers, campers, rock climbers, and winter sports enthusiasts, it's not surprising an estimated 850,000 visitors recreate here annually. The park also provides a home for a great number and variety of wildlife, providing the perfect place for wildlife watching and photography.
What You'll Do:
Help remove Musk Thistle & Diffuse Knapweed off the Mountain Lion trail spur that goes up to the Quarry.
What's the Impact:
Pulling up and digging out Musk Thistle & Diffuse Knapweed plants before they flower and produce seeds will prevent them from further invading into areas of Golden Gate Canyon State Park, thus helping to maintain the natural integrity of this incredible landscape.By taking part in this important work, you can help preserve this native Colorado ecosystem for generations to come.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.830785, -105.410958
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate
High Altitude Project: Yes
Desired Number of Volunteers: 24
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 15
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 1
Total Volunteer Days: 16
Total Unique Volunteers: 16
Total Volunteer Hours: 105
Staff Hours: 9
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: CoralTree joined VOC for a invasive weed removal at Golden Gate Canyon. Volunteers met at the Nott Creek Trailhead at 9am to complete check-in. 12 volunteers arrived for the days work. After the morning talk, crews began the hike up the access road to find the patched of Diffuse Knapweed and Musk Thistle we aimed to remove. Volunteers used thick work gloves and pruning shears to remove seed heads or the thistle and the whole knapweed bush, placing it in trash bags to be discarded. The weather was nice for most of the day, sunny and clear skies. Around 1:30 the storm came in, and volunteers hiked back down to their vehicles. Overall, volunteers removed 1.06 acres of knapweed and 0.03 acres of thistle.
Successes and Challenges: Success: Volunteers did a great job identifying the correct plants, and pulling them up from their root masses.
Challenges: Volunteers began to loose steam in the afternoon due to heat. Many of them did not bring enough water for the day, however, VOC provided plenty of refills. There was plenty of mullein on site, the original plan was to tackle that species, however the grant for the project required us to tackle a separate species of weeds which were more difficult and time consuming to locate than the mullein.
Lessons Learned: Pulling samples of the species to show during the morning talk was extremely helpful as volunteers were able to identify species on their own from the start. VOC staff should have brought more trash bags, as we went through them fairly quickly due to the volume of the knapweed.
Special Notes: Jake from CPW noted that he is happy to provide a weed pulling project on site at any time for VOC.
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents: None
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 18 and older |
