April 18 to April 28 - Chainsaws, plants, and Earth Day...oh my!

The Grand Canyon Re-veg. team started the week off by attending a two day OSHA certified chainsaw training in the Canyon. Beginning with saw basics including the different parts of a saw, cleaning, maintenance and safety; the team also received a lot of information on hazards while felling. The following day the team reviewed felling techniques and assessment of potential hazards like power lines. Then the team practiced sharpening and was able to make a practice cut in a previously felled tree. The team then relocated to the Grand Canyon school to remove three hazardous pinion pine trees in the courtyard which were deemed dangerous. Participants in the training took turns felling and bucking trees. They then stacked the larger diameter logs for residents to take and collected the smaller branches and debris to be brought to the dry dump for mulching.
The following day two crew members finished up the school site removing any excess debris left behind while the remainder of the crew watered. After lunch the crew met up to collect plants from the nursery in preparation for an earth day planting with the Grand Canyon High Schools tenth graders.
Thursday the crew worked with a group of 20 high school students in the GC Visitor Center planting a variety of yucca, agave, fern bush, grasses and other plants in two different sections of Mather Point. The day was a huge success, student’s enthusiasm was high and almost all the plants were put into the ground. The crew was invited to join the students back at the school for lunch which was a wonderful treat. After lunch the students and SCA crew returned to the planting site to water and build burms. After the students left the team clean tools and went home for the weekend.

The following Monday the crew watered and pulled weeds. They were then joined by ACE Volunteers who helped pull invasive plants and burm. They were again assisted in their efforts to spruce up the visitor center with help from the ACE volunteers who pulled weeds while the SCA crew watered the different planted sites. On Thursday part of the crew watered while one member received CPR training and another led the ACE crew in mulching and watering at Desert View.