Volunteers needed - TASK list

Volunteers needed

ALSOP BIRD SANCUTARY GARDEN

SEPTEMBER FEATURED TASK:

Meet at Alsop Bird Sanctuary Garden Sat. Sept 17th at 9:00 am. Bring your garden gloves and/or a shovel and let's get digging and pulling! Look forward to seeing you.

• Dig beds-turn and rake soil

-Weed .There are lots of them to pull.

-Haul load of compost from the transfer station and unload at the garden

-Haul load of cedar mulch from 1 mile outside city limits and unload at garden

-Paint sign post

-Cut back and dig out overgrown species. Bring a pot or two if you want plants.

-Cover about 1 quarter of the garden with dark plastic to organically kill off bind weed and all else. We will renew that section after 8 months of darkness.

-Clear out overgrown brush under bushes.

• Dig out every bush honeysuckle sapling that may have planted itself.
• Haul off garden waste pile
• Distribute compost to garden beds
• Mulch around trees

-Letter plant identification markers

NORTHEAST PARK INFORMATIONAL SIGNS RESTORATION

• Clean up the post, sand lightly and stain.

-Finish the “white board” side. Make (or shop for and purchase) and attach container for wet erase pens.

CECIL BEST BIRDING TRAIL- REESTABLISH AND REPAIR

• Look over bridge and make carpentry repairs.
• Sand / finish if need be

-Weed eat / cut back vegetation along trail edge

• Cut down and poison bush honeysuckle
• Wheelbarrow in gravel to fill eroded spots in trail ( or use 4-wheeler if someone has one)
• Remove old birdhouses and replace or relocate new ones. Urgent task. So that any virus may be removed.

-Look over wooden benches and repair if need be

-Look over observation deck and sign and repair as needed

MICHEL-ROSS PRESERVE

• Walk through preserve and haul out trash.
• Inspect signage and paint posts.
• Volunteers will be needed to put up a goat fence for 2 hours or so next year. This will need to happen when the bush honeysuckle is just getting its first leaves. It will be scheduled in late winter before other plants start sprouting and before the ticks and chiggers are present. The focus here is to make a long term plan to remove as much bush honeysuckle as possible over the next 5 years or so. Then it will need to be managed every year thereafter. This will eventually keep natural walking paths open and help maintain plant diversity in the 26 acre forested preserve.

As you can see, there is much to do to maintain our green spaces. We will feature a task every month in the Prairie Falcon.

Generally, we will work for two hours and do whatever we can. The more hands the more we can get done.

Prairie Falcon Sept 2024 p. 5