Description
Start Date-End Date: 08/20/2021-08/20/2021
Land Manager Office: Weld County Public Works
Land Manager Contact: Tina Booton
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Registration opens June 1. Kayak along the South Platte river and remove invasive weeds on this Friday project.
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 provide your own food. VOC will not be providing meals at this time.
You must bring a face mask and work gloves. Please click here for 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 email outreach@voc.org as 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:
The South Platte River flows 380 miles through Colorado from its headwaters near South Park to the Nebraska border, and eventually drains into the Gulf of Mexico via a series of tributaries. From various Native American tribes and European settlers to modern-day wildlife, recreationists, and urban dwellers, the South Platte River has long been a critical resource for agriculture, drinking water, industry, and numerous other activities. On this project, you'll get up close and personal with this important river as you kayak a stretch of about 7 miles from Brighton to Evans.
What You'll Do:
Spend a Friday exploring nature in the urban Front Range! On this small project, you'll spend the day kayaking up the South Platte River between Brighton and Evans covering about 7 miles, and stopping along the way to identify and remove the invasive weed, purple loosestrife. This project is a great opportunity to experience the river in a new way while making a significant contribution to the health of the river and surrounding plants and animals who rely on it.
Kayaks, life vests, and a shuttle back to your car at the end of the day will be provided.
Why It Matters:
While beautiful, purple loosestrife is an aggressive noxious weed that can rapidly degrade wetlands, diminishing their value for wildlife habitat. When purple loosestrife gets a foothold in an area, the habitat where fish and wildlife feed, seek shelter, reproduce and rear young, quickly deteriorates and can no longer support the number or diversity of living things. Your efforts will be a significant help to the Weld County Weed Department in mitigating this weed and helping wildlife thrive!
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: 39.986771, -104.812599
Additional Information: 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 must provide your own food.VOC will not be providing meals at this time.
You must bring work gloves.Pleaseclick herefor our full packing list of required and recommended items.
If you are fully vaccinated,you may work without a mask. If you are not yet fully vaccinated or if you prefer to wear a mask for any reason, please continue to wear a mask on VOC projects. We will have spare masks available if needed.
VOC will provide kayaks for all volunteers. If you have your own kayak that you would like to use, feel free to bring yours. VOC will provide life vests for all volunteers, but basic swimming ability is required to participate.
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 9
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 9
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 9
Total Unique Volunteers: 9
Total Volunteer Hours: 94
Staff Hours: 16
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Weld County does this river float each year to remove purple loosestrife along the river. This was the first time VOC volunteers have joined them.
Successes and Challenges: Overall, the project seemed like a success! I think volunteers enjoyed time on the river. We didn't find more than 20 purple loosestrife, so the weed work itself wasn't very strenuous at all. Weld County had three staff members float with the crew to bookend everyone to lead and follow and point out weeds as we went. This went very smoothly at the beginning as they helped everyone portage around some rocks, but at the end, somehow ALL volunteers missed that they had turned at a fork in the river, which led to volunteers being somewhat stuck above a dam while Weld County staff below. This could have been very dangerous if any volunteers had floated ahead or over the dam. Fortunately all volunteers paused before the dam, worked together to identify the best way out along the banks, and around the dam to the river below. This worked, but was a pretty unfortunate end to the day.
Lessons Learned: Discuss this fork in the river before starting and be sure Weld County spots it so no volunteers miss it.
Weld County gave a pretty good orientation to river tips and kayaking basics, definitely have them do that again in future years.
Also, do the end of day debrief before jumping on the shuttles so Weld County can participate. We shuttled back to the start before doing it this year and volunteers started to disperse when we arrived and it was harder to get everyone together to finish off the day.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Just that fork in the river and it's importance!!
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 18 and older |
