Description
Start Date-End Date: 08/06/2021-08/06/2021
Land Manager Office: City of Lakewood
Land Manager Contact:
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Help mitigate invasive spread!
Description:
Where You'll Be:
Located on the west side of Lakewood, William Frederick Hayden Park is a popular spot for visitors with 2,400 acres. Once home to buffalo, this preserved area now provides a rich habitat for hawks, elk, rattlesnake, coyotes, mule deer, and even the occasional mountain lion. With some of the better beginner-to-intermediate mountain biking trails on the Front Range, this park also attracts 550,000 trail users each year.
What You'll Do:
Common and Cutleaf Teasel are List B noxious weed species that have become an increasing problem at William F Hayden Park. The population that is the focus of this project has become particularly large due to a location that is difficult to access. Volunteers will cut and bag stalks in an area where the partnering land manager, City of Lakewood, has a more difficult time accessing with machinery. The partner will follow up with herbicide applied from back pack sprayers.
Why It Matters:
This is a small but dense infestation of Common and Cutleaf teasel in City of Lakewood's William F. Hayden (Green Mountain) Park. The entirety of the project area is located on City of Lakewood park property, including access to the site. WF Hayden Park is located on the west side of Lakewood, nestled against the Front Range foothills. It is a unique land mass with few trees, but offers quality examples of the short grass prairie ecosystem and the transition to the foothills ecosystem. The area targeted for treatment has essentially become a monoculture of teasel, which is replacing and outcompeting a combination of native upland and riparian plant communities. In this area there is a spring and seasonal creek, allowing for the riparian community to be present in an otherwise arid grassland.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.688908, -105.184978
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 50
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 37
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 37
Total Unique Volunteers: 37
Total Volunteer Hours: 148
Staff Hours: 7
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Interns from DISH arrived at the parking lot on time to get checked in and left to start the project around 8:30 while I remained behind to clean up table. A late arriver came near 9 and I checked them in while another person returned and left due to health reasons (not hurt on the project). Interns worked for about 1 hour before becoming too hot or exhausted, land manager worked hard to encourage them to keep working, was able to motivate them again. At about 10:30 DISH contact noted folks were fading, including themselves, and asked to wrap up early. We were able to get them to work until about 11:15 and then everyone packed it in while I remained behind to track the area treated. Sandwiches were waiting down at the trailhead which everyone quickly zoned in on. Interns ate and left once they finished.
Area infected: 2.09 acres
Area treated: .012 acres (hand cutting seed heads and bagging, cutting stalks to leave on the ground)
Successes and Challenges: Successes:
There is less Teasel than there was
Challenges:
Every intern was woefully underprepared. They had very small water bottles (if any at all) and absolutely no snacks (I did put out cliff bars which were completely taken)
Apparently, the night before DISH had a big party for the interns which involved alcohol which some folks admitted they'd had too much of
This was the intern's last day and the event was mandatory so their moral was not what a normal VOC volunteers would be
Interns were inconsiderate and did not listen to COVID restrictions
I felt uncomfortable the whole time
Someone arrived extremely late and someone left. I asked what was happening when the person left, but before I said anything there was no attempt to inform me of what was happening so I wouldn't have had any record of them leaving.
Lessons Learned: I would recommend asking all SWAT teams to ensure that their volunteersarevolunteers (not a single one of those folks actually wanted to be there). At the very least, I would have liked a group that wasn't on their last day of work and hung over from a party the night beforehand held by the company itself (I understand there is no control over whether people over-indulge the night before a project, but holding an end of season party right before an outdoor, mandatory, "labor intense," project is certainly questionable by most).
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: I would never work with DISH again after this experience. It's not worth it to me. I was extremely uncomfortable the whole time and found it difficult to conduct myself in a professional manner.
Description of Accidents/Incidents: No one was prepared for a day out in the sun.
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 18 and older |
