Today we accomplished a few small, but important, tasks. We started by transporting about 80 fern and 6 willow trees down the trail. We split up the group to distribute the work load: a few interns hand-pulled Himalayan blackberry through cardboard over a 4000 sq.ft. area, while the rest of our group worked on trail maintenance by raking organic debris from 2000 ft. of trail (4 ft. wide). This makes the trail more visible and encourages hikers to stay on the trail. If too many people start walking off the trail, the soil could become compacted, thereby putting stress on the soil’s ecosystem.
After lunch, we took the piles that had been made along the trail and hauled those 2 cu.yd. of debris and spread it over a area of low-quality soil. This, over time, will help with the decomposing process and improve the quality of the soil. When this was completed, Dylan and Alyssa started on clearing debris from a trench that was made to help water flow downhill.
The rest of the group helped to stage plants over 4000 sq.ft. in preparation for the BIG work party tomorrow.
