Pull out the Waders

After the plant tour described below, we met up with our classmates to do community service at the city park and nature center where the District Day Camp was held last year. The first project I worked on was moving trees. This was actually fixing what others had recently done as the trees had been placed too close together. We moved the trees apart across the area to give them a better chance at growth. The area was really swampy and made awful sucking noises when digging.

The second project was much more fun. One of the other guys and I pulled on waders and waded into the pond to pull apart an old dock. Our methodolgies were a study in contrasts: he used brute force with a sledge, where as I used a crowbar and applied leverage to do the same work. It was interesting wading around ripping the platform apart while avoiding the drop-off and handing the pieces up to the folks on shore. The park director was impressed at the speed and efficiency with which we demolished the dock. We both managed to get rather wet with the splashing and wrestling the logs about. Thus I went home to shower and change before going to the graduation ceremony.

Working out there reminded me how much I enjoy working outside on conservation projects (as long as it's not weeding or mowing) especially destruction/construction. Spring Conclave is coming up so I will have another opportunity to work at camp.