The Roosevelt Elk Calves gathered for their Service outing under sunny skies and warm temperatures. This weekend was the start to our service outings and would require a lot of hard work to clear and create space for future work. We were all excited to see the Connelly Creek service site and what it would look like after not seeing it for a whole summer. Upon arrival we saw that the Hardhack, Spirea, and Alders we had planted the year before were flourishing. We saw that the reed canary grass and invasive blackberry had also flourished over the summer and would yet again need our attention.
After surveying the site we gathered in the sunshine for a quick opening meeting to review tool safety and finalize a plan for the day. The Roosevelt Elk Calves did an excellent job explaining proper tool use and demonstrating to each other the best practices with each tool. After breaking from our closing circle we quickly got to work.
Our first task was to clear morning glory that had climbed up the wire cages around the Alders as well as the small trees themselves. The work was slow and delicate as we carefully unwound the morning glory trying not to damage the more delicate leaves and branches of the saplings. We also worked on clearing out the reed canary grass from around the base of the saplings to give them more space. This is an important task this time of year since by clearing the canary grass and morning glory we are allowing the tree to absorb more sunlight in these shortening days.
After the alders were clear we circled up to congratulate each other on our efforts and turn our focus to the next task at hand; blackberries. The blackberries are a tenacious plant that is extremely hard to get rid of. any small clipping left on the ground can re root itself and easily undo all of our work. with loppers and shovels in hand we approached the blackberry thicket and began carefully chopping and extracting the blackberry vines.
After surveying the site we gathered in the sunshine for a quick opening meeting to review tool safety and finalize a plan for the day. The Roosevelt Elk Calves did an excellent job explaining proper tool use and demonstrating to each other the best practices with each tool. After breaking from our closing circle we quickly got to work.
Our first task was to clear morning glory that had climbed up the wire cages around the Alders as well as the small trees themselves. The work was slow and delicate as we carefully unwound the morning glory trying not to damage the more delicate leaves and branches of the saplings. We also worked on clearing out the reed canary grass from around the base of the saplings to give them more space. This is an important task this time of year since by clearing the canary grass and morning glory we are allowing the tree to absorb more sunlight in these shortening days.
After the alders were clear we circled up to congratulate each other on our efforts and turn our focus to the next task at hand; blackberries. The blackberries are a tenacious plant that is extremely hard to get rid of. any small clipping left on the ground can re root itself and easily undo all of our work. with loppers and shovels in hand we approached the blackberry thicket and began carefully chopping and extracting the blackberry vines.
The Roosevelt Elk Calves put in a couple hours of really focused hard work and made great progress on the blackberries. Even though this is a service outing we wanted to give the boys a little time at the end of the outing to focus on their carving since they showed so much skill and excitement about this last time. Some of the boys chose to make more chopsticks or finish existing chopsticks while others who had completed a nice pair of chopsticks moved on to carving spoon blanks. Again the Roosevelt Elk Calves handled their knives very well and showed a lot of natural talent at carving. After about half and hour of carving it was time to pack up and have a closing circle.
We had a wonderful closing circle with all of the boys sharing really heartfelt and sincere gratitude for the day, the work, and each other. The Roosevelt Elk Calves have come along way as a group and are a true pleasure to be out in the woods with. Individually all the boys have done a lot of personal growth and as a group they have really bonded. Thank you Roosevelt Elk Calves for a great service outing and thank you parents for your continual support and enthusiasm about our program. Please check out our photo gallery for more pictures from the day.
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