Yarro Lanphear
Port Townsend High School Student
4-H Stewardship Program Member
2010 Fall Season Work Crew
First thing we did was drive for what seemed like forever into the national forest, I must admit that I was thinking that these people could be kidnapping us to sell on the black market. Ya, I know that was just my wild imagination, but hey I watched Criminal Minds Last night and I was half asleep.
Well to get us to our destination we had to go through locked gates- It was land forbidden to the public( Doesn't that remind you of the Forbidden Kingdom in China?). We reached our remote location - a bridge that was built over an impressive looking ravine, we were told that we would be throwing fish down from the bridge into the river below.
Stepping into boots and donning a pair of latex gloves I faced the pile of dead fish with all its stinky, slimy glory. And it was awesome - words can only attempt to describe how delightful it was (cue evil laugh.) I was to fling those fish with all my strength and hear them hit the bottom with a satisfying, and loud sound. It was good for the environment because dead fish helped return nutrients to the riparian zone (riparian zone is the intersection between a river and the land around it) and it was wonderfully amusing.
Potting Cuttings.After finishing the Fish Fling we drove back to the Quilcine Ranger Station and were introduced to the art of plant cutting, cuttings are basically a stick you cut off a plant, put in the dirt and it grows into a new plant. The whole group seemed to enjoy the experience, some people filled pots with dirt, some put the cuttings in the pots and the others labeled the cuttings according to types of plants. After we finished we stacked all the pots against the greenhouse ready for environment restoration next spring.
A few miles past the Quilcine Ranger Station the vans stopped at a spot where we were going to do a clean up (watersheds function is to prevent water pollution and erosion). People had been shooting clay pigeons and cardboard for target shooting practice.We were on our hands and knees picking out all sorts of objects, bullets casings (which are shiny, but are a pain to pick up which is why I wish arrows were more popular than guns), bottles, cans, broken glass (which reminded me of a thousand broken mirrors), quite an amount of various plastics, pieces of clay pigeons, Olivia even found a knife.
Forest Service Station Maintenance.
When we got to the Ranger station we were given different types of tools - most of the group stayed behind to do the picnic table restorations. Zac, Grayson, Freya and I went off to the adventure of a lifetime.... 50 feet away. We few, we merry few, we band of cleaners scraped, shoveled, swept (Gee, that's a lot of S's) that cement until it nearly half-way shined. Legions of black bags brimming with moss, trash and multicolored leaves in brilliant fall shades were hauled out of there. I am glad to say that the Quilcine Ranger Station establishment shall continue their gallant effort to protect and improve our forests.
We went to an old service road that had been closed down in the national forest aiming to plant saplings and grasses to break it up, armed with Montana sharpshooters, shovels and desperately wishing for a pick - we marched down the trail prepared to wage war. The plants that had weighed us down were designated their spots and the group dug through what felt like solid rock. After much ado most of the plants were nestled in their rock beds. The boys while digging a hole had discovered what seemed to be a treasure chest - suddenly the hole was a flurry of excitement as most of the males in our group helped in digging up a pirate's bounty. Holly, Mitchell, Olivia and I watched - intrigued after our share of plants were in their places, apparently the"treasure" was nothing but a decrepit and twisted road culvert, but the boys wanted to dig it out anyways. Needless to say it was interesting.
Campground Maintenance.
What we basically did was pick up garbage left behind by campers, and there was SO MUCH!
People, I know you are on vacation and seem to have the inclination to discard of your trash whereever is convenient... for you. But please and I stress the please, put your garbage where it belongs, a nice dumpster or garbage can instead of leaving it everywhere. Other people use the park and you are ruining the re-experience as well as destroying the environment by using the park as a dump.
Do you really want our planet so covered in trash that human kind has to live in a spaceship light years away and become really obese and brainwashed by evil robots like in Walley?
The same day that we replanted the decommissioned road we planted cuttings for elk foraging so that all elk in that area can be happy up there. The man that brought us there said people had used the trees in that area for lumbering and we would be replanting plants that elk enjoyed to eat.