Progress Reports from the Field

Since their arrival in Ohio, Project Leaders for the Athens and Ironton FIREMON teams, Anna and Bobby, have been working closely together to establish team member housing, meeting with agency contacts at Wayne National Forest, and preparing for Corps Member Orientation. After much preparation, all members of the Ironton FIREMON Team arrived safely on site in Wellston, Ohio. They were fully prepared with lots of great questions and plenty of enthusiasm. Both Athens and Ironton FIREMON teams have now completed Corps Member Orientation covering SCA policies, protocols, and values (see attached schedule). The Teams made a visit to the Athens County Farmer's Market to check out the local goods and ended the week with a celebratory community BBQ at the Project Leaders' house. The teams are now preparing to travel to McCall, ID for Corps Member Training....

Boy-Howdy!

Well, it was a beautiful day on May 22nd when the crew finally met and got to know each other. The smiles had traveled a long way from MI, NC, PA and VT to a little town in western Washington for orientation and training and the stage was set. After 5 days of brain-busting risk management and SCA intros, wilderness first-aid, and plenty of power points, everyone was icthing to move camps and start the hands-on component of training we like to call Workskills.
Be it that it may, the Pacific Northwest played up to par and dumped untold inches of rain on the crew while on the trail learning and experiencing new skills and ideas. No matter how soggy their rain gear became, the enthusiasm and excitement for the season shone through the dark gray clouds and that kept spirits high.

Once officialy "workskilled," this happy little 2matilla crew (as we like to call it) began the short road trip crossing the courageous Columbia River down into Oregon. Each member is now taking sometime to clear their mind and prepare for the first hitch, which will be 10 days starting at the Granite Creek Trail Head, leading into the NFJD Wilderness.

Monday morning, June 7th, will start our season. We will find ourselves in the morning commute, on foot, clearing trail, one step at a time.

Five SCA members took to the field for their first project of the season on Camas Creek Trail in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. This twelve mile trail is an essential travel route to access the heart of the 2.3 million acre wilderness area. This part of Idaho has some incredibly steep terrain and much of the work completed by the five SCA members was focused on reinforcing the trail with rock retaining walls and making small relocations of the trail tread. The SCA members moved hundreds of rocks and dug out over 500 feet of new tread to help maintain the trail into the future and increase the level of safety for stock users. Here are some photos of the work:

5/10/10 - 5/13/10
Monday: Attack! I designed a watering plan for the day. At our corps meeting, I laid out the battle plan because this is WAR. We will conquer the GCVC watering! We have 14ish project sites to water. Each represents a different battleground within the bounds of GCVC, and each battleground must be conquered to win the war.
We were lucky to have two volunteers with us and three buffies for the day. We were able to accomplish much more with their help.
Christine checked soil moistures for us at P5 and P9, watered P9, and spent the rest of the day at Orange Grove fertilizing our large trees with the help and guidance of NPS staff Christie Sorrell and Jan Busco. The rest of us attacked P5 and P6 on both the eastern and western fronts with two buffies and 5 infantrymen. These units were conquered by lunch when the team split in two, Jess and a volunteer going to conquer the 8 large trees in P8 while I and two volunteers waged war on P10 and P11 with 2 buffies.
We met with Christie and Jan in the afternoon to discuss general site maintenance.

Tuesday: The battle continues, but the opposition begins to fight back. Molly teamed up with Emmy, another SCA intern, to tackle a section of P5 that had escaped our grasp the day before. Depending on time and resources, Molly was to assault some of our smaller units: P4, A5-E, A-5W, and RS2. I took one of our volunteers to one of our largest units, P1, with hopes of being able to keep 1 buffy running continuously at the site and move on to our final unit, P2, which looks deceptively small. Meanwhile, Jess lodged a sneak attack on P3, the unit behind the bathrooms, while Christine continued fertilizing trees at Orange Grove.
Molly met with success at P5 and P7, and they were within our grasp by lunch, but Emmy was unfortunately a casualty of war. We lost her at lunch.
The dry ground joined forces with an onslaught of snow to slow our progression at P1, and we had to call in reinforcements. Molly rushed to our aid, but Jess was kidnapped and led into the depths of the Orange Grove in a race against time. With Molly’s help, P1 was quickly conquered, and we moved on to the smaller units, but left P2 for another day.

Wednesday: P2 falls, and the Orange Grove surrenders. The troops were reduced to the corps and one water buffalo. Jess and Christine continued their battle at Orange Grove, armed with goggles, gloves, and Superthrive in the morning. By afternoon the Superthrive battle was over and, Christine was inspecting the trees with the gentle care of Doctor Mom.
Molly and I launched our attack on P2 with the help of Bruce and Buffy #1. P2 was defeated just after lunch. Molly spent the afternoon mapping our project sites and working on datasheets. Jess and I began mulching our planting basins in P10 and P11, as Jan and Christie had suggested the day before. We were able to mulch the ¾ of the area in the shade before clean-up time.
Thursday: Office Day for all!

5/3/10 - 5/6/10
We had another volunteer week here. This time we had ACE (American Conservation Experience) helping us out for the week. They are another conservation organization that is based out of Flagstaff. This week we had 7 of them to work with for the entire week. We started the week watering our planting sites as usual. Every Monday is scheduled for watering at GCVC, but our watering duties keep piling up so watering has really been extended to 2 full days of watering. Since the snow melt, we have had to water more and more areas. After a restoration site has been planted it needs to be watered for at least 3 years afterward. Two years ago, an SCA crew planted along Hermit Road and now the watering schedule there has been reduced to every other week. Last fall, the SCA crew at GCVC completed a lot of restoration and we are continuing to water and maintain their old sites as well as any new plantings that we complete. Watering is a weekly battle that we are continuing to learn how to tackle. We water with 500 gallon water baffalos or “buffies” attached to the back of our trucks. While 500 gallons sounds like a lot, some of our sites require 5-6 loads of full buffies in order to complete. ACE helped us complete our watering priorities faster than usual. After that was done, we got the ACE crew started on gathering duff from a section of pinyon-juniper woodland that is going to be turned into another parking lot. While the idea of another parking lot cementing over even more of our beloved native plants isn’t all that appealing to anyone, it is sorely needed. The parking lots fill up here, and we aren’t even in the busy season yet. When they fill up people get desperate and park on the sides of roads, in restoration sites, etc. Hopefully this parking lot will be the last. Anyway… we also brought around 3 truckloads of downed wood into P-9 and P-5. At the end of the week the ACE crew planted some large woody plants in P-5 continuing our stuggle to get that large mound planted. In addition to completing their planting duties, ACE staked down a couple salvaged trees that were leaning over and spread some of the mulch that they collected. Molly and Jessica worked a regular Mon-Thurs week this week, while Cynthia and Christine took Wed-Thurs off because they had to attend their WFA training over the weekend in Sedona.

WFA training
Christine and Cynthia loved the WFA training in Sedona. They were trained with individuals from all over. They said the trainers were excellent, they just wish they had more time to practice and ask questions. They got to practice their WFAing skills almost immediately when they got back. A friend of ours at the canyon took a pretty bad fall. She had deep scrapes and bruises up and down her legs and hips. We found out the day after she fell and they irrigated the wounds and dressed them properly. When she went to the doctor he commented on how great the wounds were cleaned out. Good Job Christine and Cynthia!