Grand Canyon National Park - Fall

Monday, November 15, 2010

The crew worked on the SCA Presentation for Mike Stefonsic at the GC Research Library. It consisted of internet research, book reading and preparing powerpoint slides.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Mike Stefonsic arrived at the site for a visit. During the morning, crew interviews were conducted to all the individual members and Molly. While interviews were conducted, preparations for the presentation were completed by those waiting for their interview. Once they were completed, the crew went out with two water buffaloes and watered P8, Island C-1, P2, P3 and P4.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

During the morning, the crewmembers presented Mike S. the material the individuals researched. Laura presented about the history about the Native American tribes that lived around the Grand Canyon. Christine borrowed select plants from the nursery and described about ethnobotany and uses the natives had for each plant, such as edibility, medicinal or spiritual. Chris presented about the current state of the Colorado River with a particular focus on the Glen Canyon Dam and how it has affected the ecology of the river. Max described how climate change could potentially change the Colorado River and what impacts these changes can bring. Once the presentations concluded, the teams split up. One team watered P6, P5, P2 and P4. The other team began construction of an irrigation system outside the Landmark Bathrooms in preparations for volunteers on Thursday.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The crews were split in two again. One team watered P3, P4 and used one tank for P1.The other team seeded and mulched the Landmark Bathrooms. Chris took some time to collect a few prickly pear pads that were planted at the bathrooms. Once the Bathrooms were completed, the day finished with caging a few remaining plants at P4.

Friday, November 19, 2010

The last day of the week consisted of vehicle maintenance in the morning. Three vehicle inspections were done, one truck was refueled. After the inspections, one team took a water buffalo and finished watering P1. The other team spread the remaining amount of duff from a few weeks ago around the Landmark. Some areas were eroding away and it was densely covered. The Bathrooms were also finished with one more load of mulch.

My name is Laura Middleton. The week of November 1st - November 5th I acted as field leader for the Grand Canyon Native Plant Corps. The plants are still in need of water since it has been a suprisingly mild fall so far. Starting Monday we split off into watering teams to address some of the planting sites that were in greatest need of water. Chrisine and I used the moisture meter to determine which sites were in greatest need of watering. We then prioritized the watering based on the moisture meter numbers. Most of the sites were around 6-8 however, some sites, particuarly P-1 was very dry. The other team also watered some of the sites that we knew would be very dry and in desperate need of water. Later in the week we weeded invasives at p-4. P-4 is located directly behind the visitor's center and has almost been entirely taken over by knottweed. We spent tuesday pulling Knottweed and other invasives and prepared ourselves for our group of volunteers coming on Wednesday. Wednesday was a very productive day! Our volunteers from the fundamental group were very enthusiastic about helping us with planting. At the end of the day we had almost planted the entire area! The rest of the week, Thursday and Friday, consisted of a combination of watering, weeding and finishing up planting P-4. Great week!

Hello,
My name is Max Gordon and I am one of the four Native Plant Corps crew members serving under Molly Downer here at the Visitor Center in the heart of Grand Canyon National Park. This past five-day work week, from the eighteenth to the twenty-second of October, I acted as Field-Leader-For-a-Week in lieu of Molly. This is a rotating responsibility that all of us will share from week to week over the course of our term of service. Even though the week has past, it is one of my duties to write up a summary of our activities so as to better inform the readership of our unique mission here at one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Enjoy!
On Monday the eighteenth, we began with a day of research at the scientific library within the headquarters building in preparation for our presentation to SCA’s NPC program coordinator, Mike. Each one of us will present a topic related to the Grand Canyon; I, for my part, will speak to the future of the Colorado River and the Southwestern United States as a whole due to Climate Change. We will share our findings with Mike when he conducts a site visit in the middle of November.
By Tuesday morning, we were ready to be outside and luckily, the weather cooperated with sun, perfect weather for watering. One planting site only yards away from the edge of the Rim needed to be watered as well as weeded. We thoroughly enjoyed our lunch break by taking advantage of the view from our “office”. We did manage to finish that spot with enough time to spare to move on to our next highest priority: an established planting site close to the Bookstore and the Visitor Center building.
Wednesday morning threatened with thunder and lightning so we occupied ourselves by doing some work indoors at the Nursery. We had a very civilized time cleaning seed, sitting close to the heater and listening all the while to classical music on National Public Radio. It would have been perfect if only we had had some tea! After lunch, you could say that we ‘winterized’ cages by securing any loose ones in another planting site; past winter gusts have been known to carry some into parking lots and other places where they don’t belong. Bad weather returned with a vengeance so we waited it out and then gave our project another hour of our time.
Thursdays are office days for Molly so the four of us returned to the site near the Bookstore in order to finish what we began on Tuesday. As luck would have it, we finished it just before lunch and later moved on to a different planting site on the opposite end of the visitor center that really needed some help as the noxious weeds were very nearly devouring the poor natives. We rescued them right in the nick of time and put up with some heavy rain at times to boot.
Friday was a different kettle of fish altogether as we planted and generally beautified the area immediately surrounding a monument of sorts known as the Landmark, mere feet from Mather Point. This was done ahead of a visit by some very helpful donors on the following Monday.

Chris is a self proclaimed plantaholic. He is 26 years old and grew up in Seattle, WA. He studied atmopheric sciences at the University of Washingon with minors in geology and environmental science. His first SCA position was in Idaho where he was tasked with searching for whitebark pine trees during the summer of 2010. He joined the Grand Canyon Revegetation team with anticipation to learn desert restoration techniques and desert plant ID. He plans on using these experiences to help enhance his career opportunties and narrow his area of study for graduate school. Chris is an avid hiker, and has planned multiple backpacking trips here at The Canyon and other near by parks. He enjoys the outdoors, running, and cycling. One of his goals is to cycle the Pan-American highway form Purdhoe Bay, Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, South America starting next summer.

Laura is a North Carolina native. She recently completed a year of service with the Americorps Vista program, working as a program manager for the City of Raleigh's Green Building Training Program. Laura is a graduate of Appalachian State University and received a BA in sustainable development with a concentration in sustainable agriculture. This is her first time in the Grand Canyon and she is very excited with the prospect of seeing the canyon blanketed in snow.

The aim of this SCA NPC crew is to assist the vegetation office at the Grand Canyon National Park with site rehabilitation near the most visited overlook in the park: the Visitor Center at Mather Point. This area is currently in Phase II of a construction project aimed at enhancing the visitor experience and decreasing disturbances from visitor traffic. Our role is to restore old road scars and vegetation islands to Pinyon-Juniper woodland habitat. Our duties include: planting native plants; watering our plantings; invasive removal; plant salvage; seed and duff collection.
The beauty and magnificence of the canyon are a constant presence in our day to day lives. Everyday we are surrounded by inquisitive visitors and the bustle of the 2nd most visited park in the United States. If it ever gets to be too much noise, all you have to do is drop below the rim and you are in the backcountry.

Thank You to all the volunteers and our Partners for making this possible.