by Jaimie Baxter
The month of June brings us the longest days of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere. The extra hours of day are loved by the flora, fauna, children and adults of the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed. This bountiful time of year provided us with the energy needed to accomplish so much.
On the first Saturday in June, we celebrated National Trails Day with a “trailgating” party on the watershed. Thanks to the efforts of forty volunteers, the Fern Creek Trail and Tavern Pump Road look absolutely stunning. The group replaced countless water bars and cut back excessive vegetation. After a morning of hard work, the group was rewarded with a pleasant lunch at the historic West Point Inn.
June’s habitat restoration event was a scorcher! However, we had a few dedicated restoration volunteers brave the heat and remove Douglas-fir at Lagunitas-Rock Road and Ridgecrest Boulevard. It seemed like Christmas in June with the smell of Douglas-fir perfuming the air.
On June 23, we hosted a centennial celebration on the watershed to mark MMWD’s 100-year anniversary. Close to 400 people took part in naturalist hikes and presentations on the sounds of Lake Lagunitas, tracks and scat, dragonflies and damselflies, beginning birding and much more. Tule basket weaving was taught and many watershed bingo games were played. Along with the fun events around Lake Lagunitas and Sky Oaks Watershed Headquarters, the California Academy of Sciences and MMWD watershed staff led a “bioblitz” on the southern portion of Mt. Tamalpais. The bioblitz brought botanists, citizen citizens, conservation photographers and others together to collect data on the mountain’s plant species. It was a tremendous success and loads of fun. There were beautiful specimens of tiger lily, coyote mint and many others!
Thank you to all of our volunteers for your hard work! We really appreciate all that you do for the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed, and if it could speak, I am sure it would thank you as well. And if you haven’t volunteered before, now’s a great time to start. We have a habitat restoration event on San Geronimo Creek coming up next Saturday, July 21. Did we mention ice cream will be served? And our next Trail Crew event will be Saturday, August 4. This will be Jessica and Jaimie’s (MMWD’s AmeriCorps members) very last event! Come join the fun and say farewell to them. Visit our Volunteer Program webpage to learn more.
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