Mendocino County Resource Conservation District

By Linda MacElwee

Nine Americorps members, including two Vista interns, volunteered to help widen and clear the trail down to the Riparian Zone of the Robinson Creek Restoration Project on an extremely hot Tuesday afternoon in the midst of a late September heat wave. The members/civil servants came from all over the United States. They are beginning an 8 month long service stay in Northern California, working in the health care sector. They were here in the Anderson Valley for an orientation and team building stay at Wellspring Renewal Center. Americorps Regional Coordinator, Rachel Kradin, inquired through the AV Junior High looking for a special service project they could work on. Teacher Nat Corey-Moran put them in touch with the River Center, and we put them to work clearing and widening the nature trail on the Robinson Creek Restoration Project .

They only had a few hour timeslot in the middle of the afternoon, when temperatures would be at their highest. It did not take us long, 1 1/2 hours to clear the whole lower trail along the Creek. We first walked the site. MCRCD’s Outreach and Education Coordinator, Linda MacElwee, explained what the site had been like before and what needed to be done. We bushwhacked our way around the loop and then picked up the rest of our tools and went to work. We split up into groups. A few of the young women went upstream and picked up 6 trash bags full of trash. It is the perfect time of year to pick up trash as the streambed is dry and the rains have not come to wash all the garbage downstream. Just a note: something for the leadership classes and NWWG to consider as a project at the beginning of each school year perhaps.

The rest of us worked on clearing the existing trail to roughly 3 feet wide. Now a person can walk through with relative ease and safety. Given the prevalence of Lyme’s Disease in the area, being able to walk the trail relatively clear of brush is becoming of much greater importance and concern.

After we had completed in achieving our basic goals, there was still time for an interpretive walk of the restoration site with a walk in the dry creek bed up to the bridge.

I think everyone had a great time out there, even in the heat. It was very satisfying to see the progress that was made in a short time. It goes to show that many hands make light work!

Here are some pictures from the event:

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