Sunday, April 15, 2012

Success along the Powerlines

We had a great trail work party yesterday along the powerlines north of Rt. 108. A number of the students from Shelton High School came out to cut briars, clear streams, and haul debris out to the road for Clean Sweep Week.

Here's Jim Taradine with some of the students who collected a box spring, paint cans, car parts, some old pipes and various bags of garbage from along the north side of Rt. 108. We just want to thank Nancy for letting the Bridges & Highways Dept. know about picking up the junk next week.

We worked our way north from Rt 108 cutting back briars that are just start to take off along the powerlines. This will make trail maintenance much easier in May and June when things are really growing. The trails in the open areas along the powerlines require a lot of mowing effort to keep clear & the briars that grow in from the edges slows that down.

Volunteers broke up into groups either cutting or hauling trash. Here's Nikko and Alex chopping thorns.

And while some parents dropped off their students, other whole families pitched in - awesome.

The Brennan's not only cleared the trail, but they tackled clearing a portion of this stream between the two bridges of briars. This is the before picture.

And here's the After picture. The stream should flow better between the bridges and be less likely to wash them out. Incredible job.

All in all it was a very productive morning. Thanks to everybody who came out: Bill, Mike, Alex, Nikko, Cheryl, Megan, Shannon, Anders, Robert, Scott, Alex, Jim. We had so many people turn out that Sheri went over to Riverview Park and the Far Mill River to work on clean-ups. You can get a lot done with a lot of hands.

See everybody in a couple of weeks at the next work party. And if you hike the trail this June, and don't get stabbed or see any trash - thank the volunteers.

And if anybody, needs community service hours there is also trash pick up for Clean Sweep Week.