Description
Start Date-End Date: 09/09/2022-09/09/2022
Land Manager Office: CPW - Cherry Creek State Park
Land Manager Contact: Jonathan Kingery
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Help the native/non-invasive flora thrive! Join your colleague in this important task to improve the overall health of the forest.
Description: Where You'll Be:
Located just fifteen miles from downtown Denver, Cherry Creek State Park offers a natural prairie environment nestled around an 880-acre reservoir. The park is a popular destination for outdoor recreationists, nature lovers and those wanting to quickly get away from the hustle of the city. The park offers complete outdoor recreation facilities including camping, picnicking and facilities for group events.
What You'll Do:
Volunteers will spend the morning helping to remove Russian Olive, an invasive species, with hand tools such as bow saws and loppers. We will then use a wood chipper to break down branches and debris into mulch that can be use on trail tread and elsewhere.
Why It Matters:
Russian Olive is an extremely invasive species known to choke out native plants and prevent them from re-establishing. With more than 80 acres of Russian Olive in the park, your help is needed to remove these plants and further prevent their spread and competition with native species.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.6390103, 104.8733484
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Moderate
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 40
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 23
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 23
Total Unique Volunteers: 23
Total Volunteer Hours: 92
Staff Hours: 9
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Volunteers were instructed to meet at the gate next to the family shooting range and park along S Jordan Rd. VOC and park staff welcomed all volunteers and introduced the work for the day. Park staff explained to volunteers how Russian olive got to this area and why it is considered a invasive species. We also dedicated a couple of minutes to discuss the best practices to work with these trees since they have big thorns. Volunteers choose between loopers and bull saws and started trimming the trees from the base up. This with the purpose of opening space for a park sawyer to come afterward and cut the trees down. Some volunteers decided to act as swampers and pile the branches on the side of the road. We were extra careful moving branches out of the road since this is used for hikers and bikers.
The second project will be with CoralTree in the exact same location. The goal is to chip all the piles and fell the trimmed trees to spray the stump.
Successes and Challenges: Successes:
Weather was perfect for this project. It was a cool day with a lot of cloud coverage
Volunteers were motivated to explore the park after we were done with the project
Challenges:
Bathrooms were about 10 minute walk from the worksite and shared with visitors at the shooting range
Lessons Learned: Bring a lot of antiseptic wipes for volunteers that get scratched by the thorns
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 12 and older |
