On November 14th, Katja took a group of students from ACE to Bennett Memorial Park in Bethel. It was to work with an older group of adults who were volunteering to plant baby trees that would eventually help block the poop and geese as far away from the pond as possible. This would also help reduce any other runoff that would come from rain storms from going into the pond. This is called a Riparian Buffer. One fact they told us is this pond is a part of the “still river.” As everyone knows Trees give us oxygen which is always good for the environment. One last thing is since trees can store and capture rainfall, it will be much easier to protect the air quality and decrease the rate of stormwater flooding.
At around 9:00 A.M, we left ACE to go to the park which was only a 15 minute ride. When we got there, we were given instructions on what to do. We were told to mulch a few gardens with a few tools such as rakes and shovels. Most of the group had little to no experience in the job which is okay. On the other hand my family has taught me quite a lot of outdoor landscape type work, so I was a little more experienced.
The next Task was to bring a wheelbarrow to a big pile of mulch and shovel the mulch up into the barrel. We then take it to the two gardens and evenly dump the mulch in the garden surrounding the plants that the workers had already planted. We were told to put down 12 inches of mulch to evenly surround the plants. Our last Task was to dig a big enough hole on the other side of the pond to plant more baby trees in them. As shown below these baby trees are native to the environment.
By this time the wind was picking up and the sun was hiding from where we were all working, which had us all freezing at our last minutes at the park. Finally we finished all the work that needed to be done and were satisfied. My classmates and I left not just knowing about planting trees and gardening, but also about the science behind it and all the positive facts and information we were given. This trip helped us to understand the cares and needs of the environment. Everything we accomplished will benefit the community we live in.
