Journal 10/3/2023 – Work at a Preserve
The Fort Worth Nature Center is the location, and helping
out is the goal! Our class Treks and Texts
is partnering with this nature preserve, and we head out to the location half
an hour away during our class. October 3rd
is the second time we will have visited the Nature Center. I do not have a car, so I appreciate the ride
offered by my professor. We meet with the
small number of staff there at the maintenance area, and they direct us to the
bit of forest that needs attention. I
notice a sharp difference between one side of the path and the other, in that
one seems clearer and the other seems cluttered with brush and plants. We learn about invasive, non-native plants
such as privet which tend to dominate an area.
If I was just a passing tourist, I might not have realized the greenery
was actually something having a negative impact on nature, and instead thought
it was a part of nature. The invasive
plants and clutter of sticks and branches cover a large part of the forest floor,
and we learn from the staff that it is harmful to the animal life as well, such
as deer who will find it troublesome to navigate that part of forest.
There is much to clean up, hence why we volunteered to help out! The Nature Center is prepared for the amount of work we will do, as they bring a wood chipper that can turn privet and large sticks into chips that can be safely spewed back into the forest, perhaps as a form of mulch. Another way the staff prepared was by providing gloves and earplugs, because plants can be sharp to hands, and the wood chipper can be loud. I appreciated the earplugs especially because I want to protect my hearing, especially with a certain condition I have in my right ear. It was not the most comfortable work, but I came prepared with water and a hat and clothes that protected from the sun and the sharp sticks and thorns.
About halfway through picking up and shredding undesirable plantlife and wood, the chipper failed to start up. Perhaps it was because it ran out of gas, or encountered a technical issue. Thankfully, the Nature Center provided us materials to keep up our work, saws and clippers that we could use to clear the forest, and put extracted plant waste along the side of the path so that next time we could load it into the prepared wood chipper. Despite this sudden change in plans, I thought it was neat to try a new avenue of helping the forest. Armed with more than just gloves, I felt confident enough to start removing waist-high plants and sticks as well as those dangling from the trees. Removing much of that made it easier for me and classmates to navigate the forest, and so I believe it will help the wildlife as well!
Another nice aspect with this different form of
nature-clearing was that we all could see the piles of plants and sticks we
collected along the side of the road, helping me better visualize what we
accomplished as a team. Having more
hands on deck definitely helped the Nature Center, especially since the small
staff of about 4 members had this task as well as plenty of other projects to
work on.
On this day, I enjoyed knowing the definite positive
impact my class and I made on the environment.
I also discovered that coming prepared and determined moves a project
along smoothly, and I think it is thoughtful and efficient for the Nature
Center to provide materials to help us volunteers. It makes me think about how people can make a
great impact when volunteering, but oftentimes people are too busy or
unmotivated to go out into nature. This
class helps serve as a catalyst for young adults to get engaged in the
community and volunteer to help Nature Centers such as this one, because
sometimes, meaningful work just needs a little push to get started.
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