Ben Iuro

Ben Iuro

Port Townsend High School Student

4-H Stewardship Program Member

2010 Fall Season Work Crew

Over the past ten or so weeks with 4-H, we've hoisted a mattress uphill, flung fish into the Skokomish River, potted cuttings and raked the crap out of some trails.

Through it all, a principle of "leaving no trace" has been reinforced into our undeniably human psyches.

Watershed Cleanup Day
To greet us on our inaugural watershed cleaning were filthy atrocities. Used diapers, bullet casings, miscellaneous refuse. Eventually, we came upon a mattress, an intact mattress, laying in the underbrush. The brave worker known as Izak the Terrible (He's Russian now) plunged his knife into the springy mass so that Cory might secure it with a rope.

It took a team effort to hoist it up the hillside, but we emerged victorious.

Potting Cuttings
Scoop up the dirt. Pour it in the pot. Snip the plant. Stick it in the soil. Repeat ad nauseum.

Replanting Decommissioned Road
The soil was like cement on an old decommissioned road, flattened by bulldozers and automobiles. We dug through it and planted Willow and Elderberry to discourage those, who seek to use the road despite the objections of the Park Service (and provide food for elk).

Trail Maintenance
Working as a relatively well-oiled machine, we dug in a watershed a half-mile up the trail. I, and a few others were in the front, for the most part, hacking away at the ferns covering the sides of the trail while others with rakes swept up my handiwork. A team of burly lumberjacks dug canals down the hillside.

Campground Maintenance
Cleaning up campsites seems fairly mundane by the job's standards, but it was highlighted by a deer trap tied to a tree. However most of the campsites were relatively immaculate. In fact, most of the refuse was natural, being composed of leaves.

Picnic Table Restoration
We crusaded against the leaves plaguing the picnic tables by water-proofing the boards.

Fish Fling at Skokomish River
After voyaging for an indeterminate amount of time, we plunged into a pile of dead salmon, and of course, the only rational thing to do was to toss those rotted things off of a bridge into the river. Repeat this cycle twice. Then pile into a van and let the sunlight work its magic on the miasmic stench.

Planted Cuttings for Elk Forage

((CANCELED DUE TO BAD ANATOMY))