2022-Global Youth Service Day- Restoration Project @ Westerly Creek Dam

Start Date-End Date: 04/30/2022-04/30/2022 Land Manager Office: Mile High Flood District Land Manager Contact: Funding Partner: Programmatic Partner: Summary: A Stewardship Project in honor of Global Youth Service Day. This restoration project at the Westerly Creek Dam in partnership with Mile High Flood District and Denver Parks and Recreation will be led by VOC's Cairn Leadership Program students. Description: Where You'll Be: Lowry Sports Complex Park is a multi-use park offering picnicking and grilling areas, a playground, and wide expanse of sports fields/courts in the Lowry neighborhood of Denver. The park is adjacent to the Westerly Creek Dam and has a series of nearby connector trails running between the dam and the park. What You'll Do: Work together with VOC's Cairn Leadership Program members, comprised of dedicated high school students and led by adult volunteer mentors, to close and revegetate social trails that have been created by the public over time. The Cairn Leadership Program is our award-winning high school program that guides 20+ high school students each academic year in monthly outdoor stewardship and leadership activities. This project represents the culmination of this year's student work which has been student-planned and led. Alongside the Cairn students, you will complete this project in partnership with Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR), RJH Consultants, Habitat Management Inc. (HMI), and Mile High Flood District (MHFD). Why It Matters: The creation and use of social trails can lead to the degradation of the existing landscape's vegetation, as well as erosion into nearby waterways like the Westerly Creek Dam. By closing off and revegetating these trails, you will mitigate the harmful environmental effects of erosion and clearly signify the proper trails that the public should use. Latitude/Longitude: 39.731689355611465, -104.88867817715287 Additional Information: Camping Available: No Physical Difficulty: Moderate High Altitude Project: No Desired Number of Volunteers: 40 Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 7 Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 18 Total Volunteer Days: 25 Total Unique Volunteers: 25 Total Volunteer Hours: 97 Staff Hours: 18 Stipend Hours: 0 Project Summary: Approximately 23 volunteers and around 10-15 staff from our various partners (MHFD, RJH Consultants, HMI, and Denver Parks) arrived for a beautiful day at the Westerly Creek Dam. VOC staff ran check in. Cairn students kicked off the day by leading the welcome talk and the RJH gave a demonstration about why erosion control is so important on the dam. We broke into 4 groups, of approximately 5-8 people, and Cairn students led introductions and CUSS within their crews. Each crew had at least 1 staff person from HMI or RJH to explain what crews were supposed to do. By 9:30 all the crews had started either walking to their first task or started working. Around 11am it was clear that all the crews would finish the work before lunch. As crews finished, they came back to the registration area and were given additional tasks (i.e. picking up trash, or re-seeding the edge of the paths). We were completely done with the work by 12pm. Cairn students led the "thank you and wrap up" for the group, and then everyone departed ways. In preparation for the event, Hannah loaded tools into Cooper on Friday afternoon and kept them in the truck overnight so as to have a quick morning. Arrived at Westerly Creek Dam around 7:30 to place directinoal signs and unload tool truck. After the event, Hannah met with the student tool manager and their parent (Sean Mallory) to unload at Ops. Everything was completely wrapped up by 2pm. Successes and Challenges: Successes: Finished all the work MHFD had planned MHFD had their consultants give a really interesting demonstration on the importance of re-seeding the sides of the dam Crews were well divided and seemed like everyone had a task and enough tools for the work 2 other high school students (non-cairn) liked the project so much and are interested in cairn for next year Challenges: Seems like there were a few points of miscommunication between VOC staff and MHFD, but considering all the various VOC staff members that had to pass off this project to another, things ran smoothly. a few instances where it seems like the groups were on different pages were the tools list, the workday time frame (MHFD thought we end at 1pm, not 3pm as listed on VOC's website) Cairn students still did not know who each other were and did not do much to plan. The morning of the event the Cairn mentors gathered the Cairn participants and together they decided who the Crew Leaders were, and who would introduce the project/welcome the volunteers Overpacked on tools. MHFD district only wanted the rakes and buckets, did not even touch picks, pixies, or shovels. Lessons Learned: Special Notes: Alli and Dylan (Cairn mentors) have a lot of feedback about how the Cairn program was run this year, would be extremely wise to reach out to them to hear more of this feedback. Some bits were: Cairn students never had a project that was solely Cairn - every project this year was with another group so the cairn students still didn't know who was Cairn vs. Yes Coalition vs. another gruop Cairn students normally get to plan their entire final project, but this one VOC staff did most of the planning and organizing. Cairn students didn't even know the type of work we were doing on the day of the project Stewardship Education: Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: Description of Accidents/Incidents: Description of Work Completed: