SERVICE LEARNING BLOG POST

Carkeek S.T.A.R.S. work party

3 hours

Dale Johnson

carkeekstars@gmail.com

The S.T.A.R.S. volunteer program meets up on the third Saturday of every month to maintain the health, safety, and quality of Carkeek Park. We spent the whole 3 hours raking the trails free of leaves throughout the entire park. This was to ensure the stability of the trail as decomposing leaves can lead to trail deterioration which can also increase silt and pollution runoff into the nearby stream. Removing the leaves was also important to improve the safety of the trails as they were extremely slippery with a layer of wet leaves. The areas that hadn’t been raked at all this season were over two inches thick in maple and alder leaves. Additionally, we also picked up any litter we found and reported fallen trees blocking trails to increase accessibility.

When I was maintaining the park it was very clear to me how science and ecology in specific factored into society. Carkeek park in particular features a lot of natural trails and streams that we our maintaining both for the ecological health of the region and also for people to leisurely enjoy. By creating and maintaining dedicated trails the park is able to share the outdoors safely with many of people while minimizing the harmful effects that much foot traffic causes to the plants and other organisms. While various natural events like fallen leaves and trees are all a natural part of that ecosystem we sometimes need to adjust them by removing portions of trees that are blocking paths and moving leaves off the trails. Even early in the day there were quite a few people walking the trails of the park and enjoying the scenery and many of them thanked us for clearing the leaves as they went by which gave an immediate sense that what we were doing mattered to the community.

Trail that hadn't been raked 

Cleared Trail

• Is a monthly volunteer crew enough to adequately maintain a park the size of Carkeek?
• Should I not have pushed all the leaves off the cliff? Did that deprive the area of some needed plant matter?
• Would less urban parks not need as much maintenance or is any park made for human enjoyment require a monthly maintenance?
• There was a noticeable difference in plant life between the north and south sides of the park is there that much of an ecological difference for that occur naturally or was that done by humans?