Lending a Hand to Yosemite

You may remember that I have sometimes volunteered in Yosemite, often through the auspices of CSERC, the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center. (Link here!)

Well, Estelle thought that sounded like great fun, and that meant that M was roped into it as well. So following three days of hiking in Yosemite, we spent the next day giving back.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to collect we go...

These are great activities. Our job, in this case, was to collect seeds of various valuable indigenous plants, so that as Ackerman Meadow gets restored, they can plant it with the appropriate kinds of sedges, grasses, etc.

Sound like fun?

It was. First, Slim and Mel, the two Yosemite rangers, gave us a quick primer on which plants they wanted to collect. I was smart enough to pick one that seemed impossible to misidentify. And then. armed with small paper bags, we were sent out to collect seeds from the existing meadow, always leaving behind enough to reseed the current location of the plants.

You'd be amazed at how much life, and how many different plants there are in a meadow. And when we started spotting praying mantises as well, there were quite a few oohs and ahhs. The only below, a female, had just mated and left half of her mate behind. The other half, she ate. Nature!

It was a great group of people, including quite a few with a strong background in science, so the conversations were no only entertaining, they could also quite educational.

After our lunch break, we were given the option to change plants, but most people stuck with the plant that brought them to the dance. And a bit later, we were given the all clear call, to turn in our bags and head for our cars.

While we all brought our own lunches, Slim and Mel, working with CSERC, provided some extra snacks, cookies, and ice cold water in the afternoon. And they also provided calm, intelligent direction, and superb skills at managing a bunch of volunteers, many of whom had never done this before.

A great way to wrap up a short week in Yosemite, by making the park just a little better for the next generation.

And did I mention it is a beautiful location?