Thursday, September 24, 2009
by Deon BenWhat better way to celebrate the fall season, than to join in on a volunteer trip to the Navajo Nation with over twenty-five other passengers. With three vehicles, including one over size twelve passenger van, we made our way to Leupp, Arizona in route to North Leupp Family Farm. Upon are arrival we were greeted by the farmer board and farmers who were eager to take us into the fields to begin harvesting traditional corn. Three corn fields later and an hour of a mysterious cat call we about filled one truck load of white & blue corn.
As the sun began setting behind the distance peaks we began taking part in the practices of making steam corn, a practice that has been performed across Navajo country for centuries. We found ourselves embracing Mother Earth as we filled an earthen pit with corn and covered it with dirt, ash, and a rejuvenating fire. Once the potato, green chili stew was ready more than over forty attendees indulged in traditional Navajo food, but the dinner was stolen away by the handmade frybread.
That evening we enjoyed the warmth of our campfire and the musical talents of our fellow campers. The night set calm but dawn brought the sounds of howling coyotes and a breath taking sunrise. Once we had our morning coffee we headed to the farm to take on the Harvest Festival activities.
That morning our volunteers assisted the farmers with a morning activity walk, others took out the corn that streamed all night, while others helped two Navajo grandmothers prepare kneel down bread. The entire day was filled with activities and speeches, about the progress of the farm and the appreciation of the volunteers, which then led us into lunch. The table of food was about the length of the ramada, but all in all each individual got to taste the beauty and love of Mother Earth.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
American Hiking Society Volunteer Vacations
Grand Canyon National Park
Trip # 88
Grand Canyon National Park
Trip # 88
The title above is kind of a mouthful. It looks official and technical, like it could be mindlessly filed away so that someone in the accounting department could easily differentiate trip #88 from say, trip #32 or trip #105. The title seems like it would find a suitable home on a rubber stamp and kept in the same box with “void,” “sign here,” and “received.” But does that title, with all those words, even begin to tell us what might have happened on Volunteer Vacation # 88?
Terry Tempest Williams, a notable author on issues of the Southwest and social justice, recently urged the Grand Canyon Trust and the conservation community at large to deliver our message more effectively by telling our stories. Too often, she suggested, the work of volunteers, researchers, biologists, specialists, and collaborations ends up taking a back seat to jargon, acronyms, and easily cataloged trip titles like the one at the beginning of this article. Too often those convenient words and numbers fail to communicate what is really going on out there—people working hard to make a difference.
People traveled from all parts of the country to join trip #88. The spectacular landscapes of northern Arizona such as the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab Plateau, and the vistas
into House Rock Valley attracted volunteers from California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia. The volunteers came from all backgrounds including a student, a retired firefighter, a retail manager, an engineer, and a postal worker. As the group gathered for the first time at the Jacob Lake ranger station, there was a sense of excitement building; they were ready to explore, learn, and work.
The point of trip #88 was to get volunteers involved with environmental conservation across broad landscapes but, more importantly, across agency boundaries. The first two days of work were with the vegetation crew at Grand Canyon National Park. Together our group removed over 400 invasive plants from a restoration site at the backcountry office. That same afternoon we placed 7.5 cubic yards of mulch at the same restoration site. Next we moved on to a roadside site near Point Imperial, where we removed over 4,000 invasive plants. Some of the plants removed were the only known population of the invasive prickly lettuce on the North Rim. Removing such populations early makes complete eradication much more likely.
The next day the group split up, half went to pull bull thistle (Circium vulgare). We removed over 8,000 plants and successfully treated a 750,000 square meter area. Bull thistle is also a high-priority invasive plant in the park and is known from only one population on the North Rim, so once again our work made a significant difference. The other half of the group collected hundreds of seeds from ten species of native forbs and grasses. These seeds will be used for future restoration efforts on the North Rim including restoring areas that are impacted by visitors or future construction projects in the park. They will also be used to beautify areas around the North Rim Lodge and the park buildings with native vegetation.
The second half of the trip, the group worked with the US Forest Service, the Arizona Game and Fish Departm
ent, and the Arizona Deer Association. We worked to repair a 2.2 mile long fence that surrounds Frank’s Lake, which contains the only floating bog ecosystem in Arizona. Frank’s Lake sits on the South Summer Pasture of the Kane and Two Mile Ranch, which is an 850,000 acre cattle ranch on the public lands north of Grand Canyon National Park. The ranch is managed by the Grand Canyon Trust, a non-profit conservation organization that works to protect and restore the Colorado Plateau. By building and maintaining a fence around the lake we were able to protect it and the plants that live there from grazing livestock.
For two days we worked to remove old barbed wire, and bent old fence posts. We then pounded new posts in the ground, built new braces and stretched new wire. It was a lot of difficult work, but we had a lot of hard working hands to help out. Even the vegetation crew from Grand Canyon National Park came out to lend a hand and show the Forest Service that they
were interested in helping protect the area’s important resources, regardless of which agency managed them. At the end of the last day, we were treated to chicken and veggies, professionally cooked by a local Dutch oven master. I must admit that I forgot to bring the salad I had promised…oops!
In addition to all this work, we literally crammed in an entire vacation’s worth of adventuring, relaxing, fine food and sightseeing. We watched the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. We hiked the North Kaibab Trail. We grilled hamburgers made with local grass fed beef from the Kane and Two Mile Ranch on the rim of the Canyon. We watched the sun set from the North Rim Lodge. Everyone got to know each other by working and playing hard together. We worked a lot on Trip #88, and the group left feeling more connected to the land, to the issues at stake, and to their new friends. I suppose it would be hard to have a new name for Trip #88, one that would capture its essence. So that means it is still going to be up to the volunteers, the leaders, and the partners to tell the story.
Travis Wiggins
Terry Tempest Williams, a notable author on issues of the Southwest and social justice, recently urged the Grand Canyon Trust and the conservation community at large to deliver our message more effectively by telling our stories. Too often, she suggested, the work of volunteers, researchers, biologists, specialists, and collaborations ends up taking a back seat to jargon, acronyms, and easily cataloged trip titles like the one at the beginning of this article. Too often those convenient words and numbers fail to communicate what is really going on out there—people working hard to make a difference.
People traveled from all parts of the country to join trip #88. The spectacular landscapes of northern Arizona such as the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab Plateau, and the vistas
into House Rock Valley attracted volunteers from California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia. The volunteers came from all backgrounds including a student, a retired firefighter, a retail manager, an engineer, and a postal worker. As the group gathered for the first time at the Jacob Lake ranger station, there was a sense of excitement building; they were ready to explore, learn, and work.The point of trip #88 was to get volunteers involved with environmental conservation across broad landscapes but, more importantly, across agency boundaries. The first two days of work were with the vegetation crew at Grand Canyon National Park. Together our group removed over 400 invasive plants from a restoration site at the backcountry office. That same afternoon we placed 7.5 cubic yards of mulch at the same restoration site. Next we moved on to a roadside site near Point Imperial, where we removed over 4,000 invasive plants. Some of the plants removed were the only known population of the invasive prickly lettuce on the North Rim. Removing such populations early makes complete eradication much more likely.
The next day the group split up, half went to pull bull thistle (Circium vulgare). We removed over 8,000 plants and successfully treated a 750,000 square meter area. Bull thistle is also a high-priority invasive plant in the park and is known from only one population on the North Rim, so once again our work made a significant difference. The other half of the group collected hundreds of seeds from ten species of native forbs and grasses. These seeds will be used for future restoration efforts on the North Rim including restoring areas that are impacted by visitors or future construction projects in the park. They will also be used to beautify areas around the North Rim Lodge and the park buildings with native vegetation.
The second half of the trip, the group worked with the US Forest Service, the Arizona Game and Fish Departm
ent, and the Arizona Deer Association. We worked to repair a 2.2 mile long fence that surrounds Frank’s Lake, which contains the only floating bog ecosystem in Arizona. Frank’s Lake sits on the South Summer Pasture of the Kane and Two Mile Ranch, which is an 850,000 acre cattle ranch on the public lands north of Grand Canyon National Park. The ranch is managed by the Grand Canyon Trust, a non-profit conservation organization that works to protect and restore the Colorado Plateau. By building and maintaining a fence around the lake we were able to protect it and the plants that live there from grazing livestock.
For two days we worked to remove old barbed wire, and bent old fence posts. We then pounded new posts in the ground, built new braces and stretched new wire. It was a lot of difficult work, but we had a lot of hard working hands to help out. Even the vegetation crew from Grand Canyon National Park came out to lend a hand and show the Forest Service that they
were interested in helping protect the area’s important resources, regardless of which agency managed them. At the end of the last day, we were treated to chicken and veggies, professionally cooked by a local Dutch oven master. I must admit that I forgot to bring the salad I had promised…oops!In addition to all this work, we literally crammed in an entire vacation’s worth of adventuring, relaxing, fine food and sightseeing. We watched the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. We hiked the North Kaibab Trail. We grilled hamburgers made with local grass fed beef from the Kane and Two Mile Ranch on the rim of the Canyon. We watched the sun set from the North Rim Lodge. Everyone got to know each other by working and playing hard together. We worked a lot on Trip #88, and the group left feeling more connected to the land, to the issues at stake, and to their new friends. I suppose it would be hard to have a new name for Trip #88, one that would capture its essence. So that means it is still going to be up to the volunteers, the leaders, and the partners to tell the story.
Travis Wiggins
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