Description
Start Date-End Date: 09/17/2021-09/17/2021
Land Manager Office: City of Lakewood
Land Manager Contact:
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Help remove invasive weeds on this Sunday project near Lakewood.
Description: Read Before You Register! Need-to-Know Details:
We greatly appreciate you volunteering your time and energy to care for Colorado's outdoor places during COVID-19. To help provide a fun and safe experience for all, there are a few temporary changes to be prepared for:
You may only register yourself.Every volunteer must sign our digital COVID-specific forms ahead of time to be able to attend.
You must pack your own lunch.
You must bring a face mask and work gloves.Pleaseclick herefor our full packing list of required and recommended items.
All volunteers must keep a mask within reach at all times.We will ask you to wear a mask when working closely together (within arm's reach) on a task, such as moving a large rock.
If you are not vaccinated,we encourage you to reconsider your participation at this time due to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant. People who are unvaccinated are more at risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and death. If you choose to volunteer while unvaccinated, you must wear a mask for the duration of the project.
Cancellation & Waitlists: Due to limited spots on this year's projects, we expect projects to fill quickly with waitlists. If you need to cancel, please emailoutreach@voc.orgas soon as possible so we can free your spot for another volunteer and have a full workforce. If you are waitlisted for multiple projects, please call us at 303-715-1010 ext. 116 and we can help you find an open project, if available.
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:
This short, Sunday morning project gives volunteers ages 16+ an easy way to give back while staying close to Denver. Join us to spend a few hours removing Common and Cutleaf Teasel. These are List B noxious weed species that have become an increasing problem at William Frederick Hayden Park; the weed population we are focused on has become particularly large due to a location that is difficult to access. You'll help cut and bag stalks in an area where the City of Lakewood has a more difficult time accessing with machinery.
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.
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 126,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $25 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: 39.696358, -105.192046
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy, Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 15
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 15
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 15
Total Unique Volunteers: 15
Total Volunteer Hours: 60
Staff Hours: 4
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Folks from the Twilio group quickly worked to behead and cut down teasel covering just over an acre in 4 hours. The whole (gross) plot was 2 acres with about 75% infestation throughout.
Successes and Challenges: Sucesses:
Twilio was an easy group to work with and maintained high spirits throughout the project
The group was able to cover double the ground of the last group in the area with half the people
According to the GPS measurements taken, they accomplished the acre goal set out by the grant used to fund the project
Challenges:
I forgot to bring the garden shears to cut off the headsandthe loppers to cut the stalks. Parks staff were able to provide loppers, but volunteers had a much harder time removing the heads as a result.
Check-in was confusing due to having such a large group for box o rox and the decent size of the teasel pull group
Getting everyone to their designated locations for work was hard all around
Lessons Learned: Send the land manager the tool list before the project.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 16 and older |
