It was a Jungle at Silent Waters (Mind the Hornets)

 It is was a jungle along the RecPath at Silent Waters.  Thankfully, a crack crew of trails volunteers fixed that problem.

This is the "Before" picture at Shelton Intermediate School  when everybody was fresh, clean, and un-wounded.  Then we got to work.

A group took off and went in at the Turkey Trot kiosk and another went in at Rt. 108 by the crosswalk.  Our goal was to cut back all the jungle that was growing into the Recreation Path while we had been working on other trails in June.

It was getting pretty hairy by the last week in June.  It was worse by the end of the first week in July.

It was a busy morning with a lot of active trail users enjoying the RecPath.

We had a fine crew of Shelton students helping with cutting brush and clearing the Path.

The overlooks of Silent Waters were cleared at the dam.  Matt was trying to fix the fences.  We'll have to come back to work on some of the missing rails.

Some of the fence sections need work.  Sigh!.  Again.  Please be a little careful and don't fall off the top of the dams in those spots.

The beavers seem to have abandoned Silent Waters, and the water levels have dropped.

The lily pads at Silent Waters looked good though.

The buttonbush by the canoe launch looked really good.  There were lots of bees working the flowering shrubs.

We had a good work party, marred only by Val getting into a hornet nest on the downhill side of the main dam.  She took a lot of hits, dropped everything and ran, but she is recovering.  She's tough.

Thanks to everyone who came out: Myisha, Sam, Ethan, Noah, Luis, Graham, Matt, Ellen, Mark, Terry, and Val.  Maybe Val can give some safety pointers class at the next work party on how to deal with bee stings.  We're going into wasp season and it's one of our main safety risks doing trails work (that and driving to the work parties).  

And poison ivy too.  One of our volunteers is still recovering from poison ivy from the last work party.  Please remember to was with rubbing alcohol and a rough cloth to get all the invisible poison ivy sap off of you after washing.  There was a lot of it along the RecPath on Saturday.

Thanks again to Shelton's volunteers, they should get hazard pay.  There was a lot of poison ivy along the RecPath in the sunny spots, but there's a bit less today thanks to the volunteers..  The hornet nest was flagged with pink ribbon, walk briskly as you pass by.  And enjoy Silent Waters, it's worth the visit.  Check out the buttonbush.