Josh- Big Bend- Day Four

Thursday, January 17th.

As we had finished most of the work in the badlands/grasslands, they had some new work in
store for us on Thursday.Keith, another scientist working with Joe in his preservation efforts,
was going to take us down by one of the campsites near the Rio Grande to help in their efforts
of replanting of willow trees. As Keith explained, we would be cutting down younger stalks of
the willow trees and strip them of their branches, so they could put cut to length, stuck in the
Rio Grande, and be able to grow new roots and branches. These newly created saplings would
transplanted to other parts of the park that had harsher conditions that the small seeds could
rarely survive. This effort started with us walking down the river banks in search of the trees.
As we found them a way off, we began to cut off branches and haul them back to the boat
dock. After we had collected a big pile of branches we began to strip them off excess, smaller
branches, and cut them to length. After lunch and all the willows had been stripped we headed
back around our original site and were able to see where our efforts with the grass might lead.
Keith brought us to an area where a previous volunteer group had done much the same work

with the grass we had, and the results were less than spectacular. Not only had only a few small
groups of grass sprouted up, but much of it was long yellowed and dead. Not until then did I
really understand how much effort these people had put in, and what little results could come
of it. As Keith explained, there had been a good patch of grass but they had had a dry year,
and much of it had died off shortly after. But there was still hope for the area. The brush spread
there had done much of its job, the ground was still moist from the previous weeks rain, unlike
the barren, dry, cracked ground around it. And to take advantage of this we did the only thing
we could, we spread buckets upon buckets of seed on the ground in hopes that some would
take root and grow. This really hit me as the breaking point for what conservation efforts mean.
You cannot take one set back and claim defeat,but must use what you have to your advantage
and reclaim what little ground you can at a time.