Thursday, August 14, 2008

The West Eugene Wetlands Site Host Gig

So what are West Eugene Wetlands Site Hosts, and what do they do????”

Well now, I'm glad you asked!

Sometimes we pick up trash along the wetland trails…















…but it sure is easy to get distracted when we hear birdsong…. Hey Tim, the trash is on the ground, not up in the trees!


















Our least favorite activity might be removing graffiti….
















Our most favorite activity is definitely looking at wildlife, especially when people join us to peer through Tim’s scope at marvels like this Red-tailed Hawk…

















…and we have fun learning the names and uses of the wetland plants, like this Gumweed along the Tsanchiifin Trail, favorite dining spot for the recently rediscovered Great Copper Butterfly (how cool is that!).
















We love to attend Dragonfly and Butterfly and Wetland Walks….
















Sometimes the mechanically-minded half of the team (that's not me – I’m in the trailer, working crossword puzzles!) -- anyway, sometimes he assembles things for WEW, like this watering cart….

















….which enables us to pull 150 feet of hose from the Red House to the bike trail….

















…so that we can fill two 50-gallon water tanks and seven 5-gallon buckets….

















...and lug them (all 1200 pounds of them!) along the bike path to water native plantings….

















The plants on top of the bank are watered by the brawny half of the team (not me!) from 40-pound 5-gallon buckets….


















The plants down by Amazon Creek are watered by the lazy half of the team (now THAT’s me!)…

















Pretty sweet gig, I’d say! We even have time off in the evenings to paint the underside of our trailer, for which we dress up like surgeons in order to keep paint out of our hair. This glamour shot shows why we are happy to be site hosts and will never, ever become surgeons….

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Diggin it Tim and Ann. You two are stellar. We can't thank the two of you enough for all of your work.

Cheers,

Matt