This wonderful panoramic photo of the east planting area is courtesy of Chuck Fujita, who is with the Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited. What a beautiful shot! Thanks, Chuck!
Where’s My Home?
Admin got this note from Pete:
Hello folks,
After everyone left yesterday, we had one tool without a home. I have a black 1 ½ lb. rubber hammer with a wooden handle. If someone is missing it let me know and I’ll make arrangements to get it back to you.
Pete
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A Big Thank You!
THANK YOU!!!!
A bunch of our crew from the back!
A great crowd of about 60 wonderful hard workers got all 1500 trees and shrubs in the ground right before Mother Nature kicked in with some rain to finish up the job at around 3:30! It was an exhausting but rewarding experience.
From the (Computer) Desk of Chairman Peter Lent:
THANK YOU – FOR A GREAT JOB AND A GREAT DAY !!!
As the soreness of aching joints & muscles fades away, it is being replaced by a warm feeling of satisfaction with not only the significant work that was accomplished, but also the investment in time and energy that all the volunteers made yesterday to maintain the riparian corridor in Oatka Park and water quality of Oatka Creek.
I am happy to report that with the effort of over 60 volunteers, we were able to plant all 1500 trees and shrubs by 3:30 PM. This effort took just about 6.5 hours – this is a tremendous accomplishment, with most of the planting occurring between 9 AM and 2PM. I want to particularly thank the 20 or so volunteers who could stay and help plant the last remaining trees. The number of trees & shrubs planted, as indicated by the standing tree tubes or flags, as well as the amount of area covered by the planting event will be very impressive when seen by those who use the streamside trail for fishing, nature walks, jogging or hiking.
I would like to personally thank our partners: the Monroe County Department of Parks and Recreation; Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited; the Wyoming County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Coordinator for the Trees for Tribs Program for the Genesee River Basin; and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Saratoga Nursery. Much of the success for tree planting events results from the dedication of time and energy into pre-event planning. In addition to myself, there were four individuals who were actively involved in on-site preliminary planning activities. They include: Steve Leupold with the Oatka Creek Watershed Committee, Gary Koplun with NYS DEC, George Squires with the Black Creek Watershed Coalition; and Mark Quinn with the Monroe County Parks. I also thank Meg Boberg and Al Fagen, who are with the Wyoming County SWCD, for their help in coordinating supplies and plants with the Saratoga Nursery and in delivering supplies and plants to the planting site, as well as volunteering at the event.
Most of all I thank all the volunteers, without whom a successful event would not have been possible. The volunteers included folks from: three Trout Unlimited Chapters (Seth Green Western NY, and Canandaigua); Oatka Creek Watershed Committee; Monroe County Parks; students from McQuaid and Sunderland High Schools; CEI-Genesee RiverWatch; Monroe County SWCD; Knights of Columbus – Caledonia Council; and many other individuals. In particular, I think it is important to highlight the efforts of three Trout Unlimited Members who helped operate the augers: Bob Herson from Canandaigua TU, Scott Seidman from Seth Green TU and Chuck Godfrey from Western New York TU, who also was responsible for bringing the augers to the event.
If you folks know of someone who helped at the event and may not be receiving this thankyou from me, please forward it to them.
One of the responsibilities under the Tribs for Trees Program is to monitor the plants over time. This includes maintaining the tree tubes and water the plants during drought conditions. I will be working with the local Trout Unlimited Chapter – Seth Green to develop a practical plan for tree monitoring that would include volunteers from Trout Unlimited and the Oatka Creek Watershed Committee.
Request: I am interested in receiving copies of photos that any folks took during the planting event. We have some photos posted on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/OatkaCreekWatershedCommittee/
I will want to pick a couple of the photos to use in the presentation I will be doing at the 3rd annual Genesee River Basin Summit – sponsored by Genesee RiverWatch, an initiative of the Center for Environmental Initiatives. This year the Summit topic is “Streambank Erosion, Soil Loss and Sediment” http://www.geneseeriverwatch.org/index.php/events/upcoming-events
Again THANK YOU for all your efforts yesterday. We should all be proud that we made this effort.
Peter Lent, Chair
Oatka Creek Watershed Committee
note from admin – Several fisherman who saw the group at the site expressed their thanks for our hard work. Made us feel great!!
Pete & Gary give tree planting demo
Assigning task groups
Mark Quinn, Chief Horticulturalist for Monroe County Parks, was there to assist!
Reminder – What to Bring to Plant those Trees!
Here’s a list of tools to bring with you if you have them:
- shovel and/or spade
- planting bar
- Pick axe and/or mattock tool
- Hard rubber hammer, claw hammer and/or medium size ballpeen hammer
- utility knife
- empty 5-gallon buckets with handles
Don’t forget to label your tools for easy identification.
And for yourself:
- boots
- work gloves
- insect repellent
- sunscreen
- water & lunch
Thanks to everyone who will be participating tomorrow! See you bright & early at 8:30!
Get Ready to Plant!!
Get your tools, food and bug spray ready to go!
Pete, Gary & Steve have been preparing the sites at Oatka Park for Saturday’s planting event. Here’s the latest on what’s happening as well as news about another tree planting effort along the Creek at Balonek Farms (map for Balonek project below, and maps for Saturday’s Oatka Park project see previous post!)
From the desk of Chairman Peter Lent:
Trees for Tribs Update
The tree tubes, stakes, weed mats and staples were delivered to the tree planting site yesterday morning. Al Fagan and Meg Boberg from Wyoming Co SWCD brought them up and I helped unload them and we brought them through the RR Underpass and cached them on the other side. There will be tree tubes only for the deciduous trees (red maple and sycamore), no tubes for white pine and white cedar, or for shrubs. Our trees should be delivered on Friday I don’t know the time yet. The Wyoming Co SWCD will get the plants from the nursery today. They will be getting close to 5,000 and they need to separate these out into the projects that they have (5 or 6 ?), including ours and Balonek Farm. This will take some time and they plan to do this on today and Friday.
After we unloaded the supplies, Al mentioned that they were going over and deliver some supplies to Mike Balonek and I decided this would be a good time to meet him too. His trees won’t be delivered until early next week. I had the chance to explain to Mike that we had been planning to help out with his project for 2 years and still would want to help, but I couldn’t see that we could do anything until the first weekend in June. Al, or Meg or Mike (not sure which one) had heard that Kelly Emerick (Monroe Co SWCD District Manager) might be trying to arrange some planting on a weekday, but there is nothing scheduled yet. With Memorial Day weekend coming up, it seems unlikely that something will happen before June (they will just have to keep them cool and protected in the meantime). I’ll keep everyone informed when I hear something, but for now this Saturday at Oatka Park is the most important thing we need to think about.
One of the new technicians, Josh LaFontain, at Monroe County SWCD has alerted us that he will be attending our meetings now and will also be at the tree planting at Oatka Park. This will give us an opportunity to find out more from him about Balonek farm project. I have attached a plan for the Balonek farm tree planting that Meg received from Monroe Co SWCD.
I made a presentation of the project status update at last night’s Seth Green TU Chapter Meeting in Scottsville. I had an additional 7 folks sign up and have 5 more that are likely to attend at some point but needed to check with their significant other. With the 7 we are probably at 55 volunteers now. Larry Charette is sending out an e-mail to the entire Chapter Membership today (400 +) he is asking them to show up but I won’t be contacted so we will wait and see what happens. I also met with the volunteer that will be working at the off-road parking area and we have a plan to park the cars. We will first park them along shoulders of the access road and then have them park up in the material storage area, which has plenty of room. Some of the TU folks will probably park at the fishing access point off of Union Street and walk along Oatka Creek to the Planting Areas.
I am thinking about how we will organize the work and the volunteers. Of those attending the most knowledgeable are Gary Koplun, Steve Leupold, Mark Quinn, Al Fagan, Meg Broberg, George Squires and possibly me. My plan is to divide each planting area into two sections (4 total) and have at least one of us serve in the role of a “supervisor/guide” for each section. Planting progression in each section will proceed from the creek margin north into riparian corridor, with those using the augers advancing ahead of the other volunteers. Although most volunteers will probably be there from 9 to 12, some volunteers will leave early, while other will arrive later in the morning and stay past 12, others have expressed interest in working into the afternoon. I will be there until 5. After about an hour any volunteer probably can mentor any new folks that show up. The supervisor role would include overseeing up to 25 volunteers (100 divided by 4) and making sure plants are planted correctly and that hole prep, planting , installation of tubes/ weed mats, and watering progresses as smoothly as possible through their section. In the next 2 days, I’ll be dividing up the two planting areas not only into half (east and west sections) but also into planting “rows” going from south to north in each of the four sections. This will give those auguring a guide and will ensure we are covering the area. At least these are my thoughts, within the first hour on Saturday we may be doing something completely different. But at least it’s a plan and I think I can get it on paper so I can share with “section chiefs” and those doing the auguring. I plan on being at the site 7:30 Saturday Morning and we can get together sometime before 8:30 and discuss coordination. Any thoughts in the meantime would be appreciated. If anyone is available on Friday, while we wait for the trees to arrive, we can try and get some of the supplies distributed to some of the planting sections. I will be bringing a wheelbarrow.
One other thing (at least for now) in order to not cause too much disturbance to Oatka Creek, early on we should identify one single spot for each of the 4 sections where we can safely enter the water and fill buckets for watering the plants. If possible these locations should have vegetation on the banks and not bare soil or mud. Probably, early on we should see who has the best boots and assign them to go into stream and fill the buckets and hand them off to other volunteer s on the banks this would limit the times the edge of the stream bank gets disturbed and will reduce damage to vegetation cover.
That’s all for now. Got to mow my grass.
Thank you for all your help.
Pete
Call to Action – 100 Volunteers Needed
From the Desk of the Chairman, Peter Lent:
WHAT: Trees for Tribs Planting Event on Oatka Creek – Plant 1100 trees and 400 shrubs!!
WHERE: Oatka Creek’s Riparian Corridor in Monroe County’s Oatka Park – North shore of Oatka Creek roughly parallel to State Route 383 (Scottsville- Mumford Road).
WHEN: Saturday May 21, 2016 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM (or later if you can stay and planting still needs to be done)
PURPOSE: Supplement tree canopy in the riparian corridor of Oatka Creek with various tree and shrub species to replace the dying or dead ash trees that have historically been the dominant tree species and that now are infested with the Emerald Ash Borer, a non-native invasive species.
This event is being coordinated by the Oatka Creek Watershed Committee, in partnership with the Monroe County Department of Parks & Recreation, the Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Saratoga Nursery’s Trees for Tribs Program and the Wyoming County Soil and Water Conservation District, the regional coordinator for the Genesee River Basin Trees for Tribs Program (see program information at http://www.wcswcd.org/index.php/tree-shrub/ ).
If you can help or have questions, please contact Peter Lent lent@frontiernet.net (Chair, Oatka Creek Watershed Committee). Ask a friend to come with you and pass this notice on to others.
Below is a general location map for the planting event and a closer view map showing location of off-road parking and the access to the Oatka Park property through the railroad underpass trail. Rather than parking vehicles along Route 383, the Town of Wheatland Highway Department will allow volunteers to park their vehicles on the shoulders of the gravel access road to the Town’s brush and compost storage area. After parking, volunteers can then walk east along S.R.383 to the railroad underpass trail, which is the safer preferred way for getting to the Oatka Park property on the south side of the railroad tracks & its right-of-way. Vehicles can unload equipment (tools, buckets etc.) at the underpass, but vehicles will then need to be parked in the off-road parking area.
Volunteers need no prior experience, we will provide instruction on planting techniques, and placement of weed mats and tubes to prevent deer browsing. Volunteers can bring shovels, spades, or planting bars for tree planting. Pick axes or mattock tools are useful to quickly break up the ground and get through roots. Hard rubber hammers will be useful in pounding in the “staples” that secure the weed mats to the ground. We will need claw hammers or medium size ballpeen hammers to pound in stakes that the tubes will be tied to. We will need empty 5-gallon buckets with handles to use in watering the plants. Volunteers will need to wear boots, bring work gloves, insect repellent, sunscreen, water & lunch. Please label your tools for easy identification.
We look forward to your assistance with this worthy project. With your help we will have an event as successful as last year’s planting day at the Genesee Country Village & Museum. Thank you.
General Location Map:
Map Showing Off-Road Parking and Railroad Underpass Trail:
Note from Admin – Event information will continue to be updated here, so check back often!
No CommentsReminder! Prescription Drug Collection TODAY
Today until 2:00PM – The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will hold a prescription drug collection. Properly disposing of drugs keeps them out of our lakes, streams and rivers. Collections will be held at many locations with two listed in the Oatka Watershed: Village of LeRoy Police Department, 3 W. Main, LeRoy, NY 14482 and Wyoming County Sheriff’s Department, 151 North Main St., Warsaw, NY 14569. Other collection locations in New York can be found on the DEA’s website HERE.
No CommentsSaturday, Let’s Pick up Oatka Creek Park!
It’s That time!
Where to go!
What to bring!
What to do!
Looks like the weather is supposed to be good! We will be meeting at the at the Park Lodge off the main entrance from Union St. at 9:00AM.
From the Monroe County Parks website ‘Day of Details’:
Hope you join us!
No CommentsOatka Fisheries Habitat Project – Volunteers Needed May 21
Photo from Democrat & Chronicle. Pictured left to right: Susan Maney, Mark Quinn, Peter Lent, Gary Koplun, Matt Sanderson, Steve Leupold, and Kim Falbo.
OCWC is partnering with the Seth Green Chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU) and several other local fly fishing groups, along with Monroe County Parks, and New York DEC on a protection and restoration effort: the “Oatka Creek Fish Habitat Assessment and Monitoring Project”. Trout Unlimited has applied and received a grant for the project from retailer, Orvis. The project seeks to improve and monitor the portion of the Oatka trout fishery within the Oatka Park. This will include installing protective cover structures within the creek, improving and stabilizing the riparian corridor, and assessment of fish habitat, followed by long-term evaluation & monitoring. See this article in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.
OCWC will be coordinating the “Trees for Tribs”/riparian corridor restoration portion of the effort. The Park area is within the the 10 mile corridor that has been targeted for new cover plantings to replace the projected loss of current ash tree canopy that will come about from the now active infestation of the Emerald Ash Borer. As well as heading up that “Trees for Tribs” piece, Pete will be lending his expertise to the assessment/monitoring portion of the joint project.
We will be needing Volunteers to plant 1500 Trees on May 21st! More information will be posted here as the date approaches. If you have questions, you can contact Pete at lent@frontiernet.net
1 CommentNews from our friends at DEC
Drug Enforcement Administration to Collect Prescription Drugs
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will conduct a nationwide prescription drug collection on Saturday, April 30, 2016 from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Properly disposing of drugs keeps them out of our lakes, streams and rivers. Collections will be held at many locations around New York and are the best way to dispose of unused and unwanted prescription drugs. Collection locations in New York can be found on DEA’s National Take Back Initiative webpage.
(Note from OCWC: We highly recommend checking out the above website as there are a few sites listed in and around the watershed, but many are being added daily!! Find one that’s most convenient to you!)
EPA Funding Available to Prevent Plastic Trash in New York Waters
The EPA has provided $365,000 to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) to fund local projects that will prevent plastic trash from polluting waterbodies in New York and New Jersey. More information, including the request for proposals and how to apply, can be found on the NEIWPCC website.
Also, a reminder for the Thursday, April 14 webinar on the GIS landscape assessment tool! If you are interested in participating, please contact: greatlakes@dec.ny.gov
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