July 10, 2026
To start our week we mowed and weeded our gardens to keep them nice and tidy. While Romy started their first day at the chainsaw course, they were mostly in the classroom learning about all the safety measures in order to operate a chainsaw. For the crew in the afternoon they went and collected all the things they needed to start watering the trees we planted this spring.
The next day in the morning we did our classic woody material management, as we chainsawed the fallen trees and brush that were causing the fish no passage. In the afternoon on Tuesday the crew split up to be more efficient. Two people went watering the trees at AMAR and the rest went down to the DeSable estuary to collect smooth cordgrass and transport it to our salt marsh restoration site. While this was all going on Romy was on their second day at chainsaw training but this time in the woods putting their knowledge they learned the previous day to work. Late in the night some of us were out bat monitoring which the newer crew thoroughly enjoyed.
Wednesday Romy was back with us for the day and they helped us finish transporting the smooth cordgrass to our restoration spot. Then we went to our other location of smooth cordgrass that we monitor and measure to see for any changes. Then in the afternoon we loaded the invasive Manitoba maple that we cut down in one of our parks last week into our trailer as much as we could before the people for the swallow banding came. When they showed up we stepped away from loading the trailer and watched the master go to work on the banding for the rest of the day.
Going into Thursday we jumped right into the stream and made some lovely brush mats in areas that were needed. That took us most of the morning because we needed to get back in time to plant marram grass and roses in New Hampton Beach. That's what we proceeded to do in the afternoon which was a lot of fun as some of the landowners came down to help us dig and plant.
At the end of the week we had a lot of little things that needed to get done which made planning out the day a bit complicated, but even so we made it all work. We started the day planting extra trees that got left behind and maintenance on the chainsaw that was greatly needed. For the afternoon we loaded the rest of the Manitoba maple into the trailer and took it to the incinerator. That took us to the end of the day and our week of work was finished.
Keep a look out on our social media platforms about our annual swim located in Victoria by the Sea, would love to see you there.
Love,
SSWA
