The Red Tailed Eyas and Black Tailed Deer Spread Mulch!

For the second service outing of the Fall BEC season, the Red Tailed Eyas and the Black Tailed deer pooled their efforts to help heal Connelly Creek on what was likely the last warm, sunny day of 2016.

Moving mulch

We started the day as all service outings do with an opening circle and tool safety demonstration by the older group, in this case the Red Tailed Eyas.  We then took a tour of the site and got to see all the good work that the Pine Martens and Salamander Efts did the day before pulling up reed canary grass.  Our job for the day was clear; mulch, mulch, and more mulch! We set out to cover the newly exposed dirt with mulch in order to prevent the grass from sprouting again.

The warm sun that had broken through the fog earlier that morning warmed our bodies and gave us a focused energy.  Right off the bat both groups were working together well and we were moving mulch at a great pace.  After about an hour of some seriously good work, the tediousness of the task began to slowly chip away at our work ethic. As a group, we decided to take a break and play a huge game of squirrel tag with both groups out in the field.  

Sunshine and squirrel tag.

As the game wound down, we gathered around the backpacks for a quick snack and sip of water.  Suddenly, sauntering down the trail was a big buck! He certainly was not intimidated by us and we gave him the right of way as he made his way through the park.  We noticed his big set of antlers and thick, muscular neck and knew that these were signs that he was likely looking for a mate. 

Just before the buck appeared.

As we refocused our intention on the mulch, some of us (including some from the Black Tailed Deer, the younger group!) came into leadership roles and helped us to maintain intention in our work by leading by example and encouraging fellow explorers to give their best.  

Somehow, one of us got partially buried in the mulch pile!

While we were spreading mulch we came across a salamander that had made the mulch pile his home during the last few days.  This was a Northwestern Salamander and we all got to look at it up close.  We were glad that we got to move him to a safe area closer to the creek and away from all of the shovels and boots!

A Northwestern Salamander

We noticed our energy waning toward the end of the outing, but we still had a good bit of the mulch pile left to move.  So we challenged ourselves and set a goal of moving the rest of the mulch in the remaining time that we had together.  It was all hands on deck in an effort to meet our goal and, just before we had to leave, we ended up getting all of the mulch spread! Today the Black Tailed Deer and the Red Tailed Eyas put in some great work, played some fun games and got to have some cool animal encounters as well. 

Be sure to check out the rest of the pictures from this outing here.