Mill Park (Johnson Creek Watershed Council)

Over dinner last week, Hannah told us about erosion and how you can stop it by planting more trees.  With her Nature School friends, she found that stabbing sticks ("pretend trees") into a mountain of dirt kept the dirt from washing away.  It's pretty cool when your first child can tell you about erosion over a shared meal.  Last weekend we joined the Johnson Creek Watershed Council to control creekside erosion in Mill Park.  Along with 400 volunteers in nine parks, we planted shrubs and trees, pulled weeds, and laid bark.  Hannah made a new friend who she continues to talk about.  We had such a great morning digging in to the work with other volunteers.  As volunteers, we have found we learn things for free that other people pay to learn.  It is amazing what a four year old can learn in a short time.  Her new skills include getting a plant out of a pot, loosening the roots, placing it straight up in the ground, gently filling in and tamping around the plant, shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow, moving an empty wheelbarrow, collecting pots and weeds from volunteers, and finding other odd jobs to help out.  I was so impressed by how helpful she could be.  And she truly delighted in her new skills and independence.  We would like to do more activities like this to help out in our local community.

loving her time in Mill Park

testing out the hole before the tree is planted