March

On March 10, we had our monthly Stewardship Saturday event and so much was accomplished.
Chris S, Tyson B, and Garry B helped knock out an entire Himalayan blackberry bramble, root crowns and all, that was growing on one of our wood chip piles.

We also pounded in some mole holes that we found on our Cedar Circle trail, en route to tackling more blackberry that were growing on a hillside. While clearing this section we found several cherry saplings resistant to the aggressive behavior of blackberry. We thinned the blackberry growth around them and now hope they will have a higher survival opportunity.

At the end of the day, we had pizza and juice. While we waited for the delivery man, we went out and collected some tree clippings from willows, black cottonwoods and maple trees to help propagate our tree nursery.

My volunteer(s) of the month are: Chris S, Tyson B, and Garry B

Thanks for your help this month!

Spring !

Hello and welcome back to the columbia springs volunteer weblog !!
Spring is just right around the corner and with today's 60+ degree weather, I only wish it would arrive and stick around sooner. Or more soon. Whatever's grammatically correct.

First, apologizes for the update lag in January and Febuary. I did not allocate enough time to prepare enough material to post. A synposis of what happened during those two months will include that in January, Covington middle school came for two sessions of service learning and knocked out a lot (a ton!) of Himalayan blackberry. I'll post photos below to show the before and after shots. And in February, we had one group come in, and they were from Wy' east middle school. They helped me chip the Hawthorn Trail, and after lunch, picked up where last month's Covington group left off, and demolished more blackberry canes. They were even able to save and untangle several American Chestnut from the brambles.

As we enter into the second week of March, our monthly volunteer event, Stewardship Saturday is still going, and we hope to see more people turn up for the event. This week, we'll be working along the Cedar Circle Trail and pruning the Lewis and Clark garden as it gets ready to blossom in spring.





before. december 2006













after. janruary 2007












after. february 2007 (see the two chestnut trees?)

december

so far, in the month of december, three 8th grade classes from pacific middle school visited columbia springs to participate in an all day learning field trip. in addition to learning about macroinverterbrates and water testing, part of the day was spent with me and participating in service learning.
we learned and talked about what invasive species are, why they are detrimetnal to our environment, and how to identify common local ones, such as himalayan blackberry and english ivy. after a quick tutorial on equipment and personal safety, we were all armed with a set of gloves and a pair of loopers, and set out to do some work.

Columbia Springs Volunteers!!

welcome to the columbia springs volunteer blog site!
please feel free to come back and see what kinds of progress and fun we're having !

listed below are event dates of upcoming activites.

janurary 13, 2007 -- first stewardship saturday of the year!!!

tools and snacks provided. meet at columbia springs for some restoration fun !!!