The highlight of our spring youth activities was the Youth Riparian Restoration Day held May 15th in conjunction with the City of Boulder Parks & Open Space Department. Our project this spring was on Coal Creek near Louisville where over 30 youth & adult volunteers worked to restore the riparian habitat scarred by the recent modification of a diversion dam. The diversion dam was modified to allow fish passage and our project was organized to re-plant the area where heavy equipment damaged the riparian landscape.
A similar project completed last year on another Coal Creek diversion dam removal site was an unqualified success. Eighty to ninety percent of last year’s plantings survived the winter and have erased all signs of the dam. Pictures of last year’s program can be viewed in this website under the 2004 Youth Riparian Restoration web link.
This year, youth volunteers planted over 200 trees, shrubs and grasses in the affected dam diversion area. Volunteers for this project come from all over Boulder County and most are non-TU members. These projects have been so successful; we are planning to conduct two more similar projects this year on South Boulder and Middle Boulder Creeks. Anyone interested in participating in these or other youth education and conservation projects please contact me (Larry Quilling) at the5quills@earthlink.net. I guarantee everyone wins who participates.