Volunteer Opportunities - May 20th & May 21st - Weeding & Tree Plantings - Help Mother Nature

Two great volunteer opportunities coming up to help our park and preserve! Join one, both or share to help spread the word!

Opportunity #1

Weeding and adding additional mulch to the newly installed Healing Garden at Crossan Park. We’ll start at 3:30 pm this Friday 5/20 and go till about 6:30 pm. Plants will be a little taller now and we weed out the unwanted plants and fill in mulch a little higher now where needed. Please bring gloves, a large shovel and we’ll need at least a second wheelbarrow if possible. This is an important project because the first year of a garden is the hardest. We’ll be saving the life-supporting native plants and removing the unwanted weeds that are trying to crowd them out. If you have no knowledge of which are the good plant species and which are the weeds, no worries, you can be taught. We’d love to have 10-15 volunteers for this event.

Opportunity #2

Help plant 270 native trees at Franklin Preserve on Saturday 5/21 at 9:00 am. Franklin Township has an excess of 270 native trees that need to get in the ground from a planting that was done on another property. The intent is to infill missing trees in Franklin Preserve at a planting that was done previously. These saplings are just 1 to 2 feet high and will be planted in protective tubes to form a riparian buffer along the West Branch of the White Clay Creek. This is an important project to improve the White Clay watershed and improve water quality in the stream. The trees filter the water before it reaches the stream, they shade the water to keep it cool for the fish. The trees slow the water to reduce flooding and hold the soil in place when flooding occurs. They also provide habitat for the local critters and remove carbon from the atmosphere. We’d love to have 30 volunteers for this event.

Volunteers should bring:

1. Water (86 Degrees forecast)

2. Shovel - Full size pointed Shovel for planting.

3. Mallet - 3- or 4-pound steel mallet to drive stakes. (Rubber mallets don't work, small carpenter hammers don't work, if you don't have one, we can share ours)

4. Hand Clippers - small ones to keep in your pocket

5. Tick protection, spraying insect repellent on your boots and pants is suggested.

6. We also need about 6 wheelbarrows to help spread the stone mulch.

7. Chain saw is for around the edges, a few trees are down and would be good to clear them to allow mowing this summer.

Please us know if you have any questions.  If you have any questions please email Greg Sachs here.