Conservation begins HERE!
I was thinking about the blue shirts that are distinguishable all over the USA to anyone that knows about The SCA. “Conservation Begins Here”. Yup. Right here. Well, all over the states this summer, really. All the wonderful crews that are out there doing their part. Keep it going!
Here I am a little more than halfway through our program here in Kansas. The team has taken on challenges with great pride and interest. As a leader, you can’t ask for anything else. As the members of this crew had their first trail building experiences, it was fun to watch them come into their own over these few weeks as we really dove into some great conservation projects. Develop their own trail building styles, persay.
We have been teaming up with our partnering lakes, to start fixing up things that the public complains about through our surveys, or things that the park has wanted done for a while. At Clinton Lake we dove deep into the woods, ticks and all- webwalking our way to starting a beautiful trail. The trail will be the first hiking trail at this site on the lake!
At Perry Lake, we have partnered up to finish a project that The SCA started here last summer. There is this unbelievable Frisbee golf course that traverses through the tree-filled deep woods of Kansas. 18 beautiful holes that take you through streams and swamps, up and down hills and it surely provides a challenge to those who love to disc golf. We built a trail to make the walk from one hole to another easier, adding dimensional lumber steps at switchbacks, and a dominant rock staircase at the start of the trail. We also build some more trail and steps in another spot on the course. The crew got sweaty, dirty and faced some ferocious black widows.
We had fun for the two conservation days we were at this lake. We want to thank Mr. Will Penner- SCA’s very own intern at these lakes for coming out and lending our crew a hand on the survey sites and for our conservation project. We also want to thank our ranger at Perry Lake, Mr. Kyle Ruona for all your help setting up the project, and then for getting down and dirty with us! It is not often that the rangers want to come out and do trail work, and it always provides for a good time. For first time trail builders- your skills were just downright appreciated!
We came across another wonderful person in Kansas who needs to be mentioned before this blog comes to an end. We needed a couple of specific tools for the rest of the season here, and headed over to the local hardware store in town. The wonderful owner did not have the tools we needed for rent and only to buy, but everyone knows that we don’t have money for that! Instead, the lovely owner, Ms. Linda Cottin let us do a long-term rental on new tools. There are some people here in Kansas that are just so kind. Thanks!
Look out for the next two weeks, as our very own.. Ms. Brittany Rosen takes over hitch leading. Stay tuned for her blog!
-Leah 🙂
