Monday, January 28, 2008

Central Texas Trail Tamers volunteer at BRP

The Central Texas Trail Tamers volunteer a day each winter to help the Bamberger Ranch Preserve. Their knowledge of trail development and maintenance is valuable to us, and they have done some wonderful projects here.

Below J. David and Lynda DeGroot stopped work and smiled for the camera as I walked along the Lindheimer Trail taking pictures of volunteers hard at work. Lynda has been with the Trail Tamers for many years and is the person that we count on to communicate with their members and make arrangements for their camp-out and work-day.

The Lindheimer trail, which is in Turkey Hollow, is several years old, but its remote location and abundance of Ash Juniper have kept it from being used often. Also, feral hogs have done a lot of damage by digging in the area, and so it was time for maintenance and clearing.

The morning activities were rock relocation, building steps in steep areas and removing excess juniper. Below are some volunteers that were concentrating on rock placement along the trail.

Below a chain saw is used to cut juniper into pieces that can be easily hauled to the tree chipper.

Stephanie, who is engaged to our new employee Justin Duke, helps pull brush down the hill to be chipped.

Justin loads juniper limbs into the tree chipper.

The chipper grinds up and delivers a stream of chopped material which will be used around the ranch on trails and in gardens.

Aiden, Steven and Amanda Fulton's 18 month old son enjoys walking on the new mulch bed in Colleen's Butterfly garden. The flowering plants and bushes in the garden are glorious during the warm months, and attact bees as well as butterflies, and provides food for caterpillars.

Big Steve and Aiden enjoy sitting on the porch and watching people exploring outside the Center.

I missed the afternoon activities, but it was wonderful meeting volunteers in the morning. Thank you all so much for the work you did!

If anyone took a group picture and would like to send it to me, along with names (if you wish), I would be delighted to add them to this post.

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