Clearing and Cleaning the Path

Jill Smith in green hoodie with clean up volunteers

Linda Groat from Division of Wildlife

Student volunteers hike the trails to their assignments.

An assortment of volunteers turned out for a clean-up day on the Willow Creek Nature Trail in the woods to the rear of Lamar Community College Friday, May 13th. The project ran from 9am to Noon with over a dozen young men and women showing up for their assignments. Linda Groat from the Division of Wildlife and Jill Smith, McClave teacher, said the young group was comprised of scouts, students working on class studies, nature lovers and volunteers in general.

Groat explained that although we usually do this each spring, this effort was motivated in part by Jill Smith’s Environmental Science class needing a service project. She said because the area is so well used through the year for environmental and educational events such as the annual Snow Goose Festival, the cleanup presents a chance to give back and take care of this little neck of the woods that we like so much!

Chores involved picking up trash, moving fallen limbs, some pruning, and laying down some gravel on parts of the trail. The hiking path is divided by the creek that passes south, through Willow Creek Park, running behind the college and into the Country Village neighborhood.

by Russ Baldwin