Abraham and I finished up picking up the litter and trash around the south pond over in the Stewart Park Natural Area this morning. We have a small window to get work done around there before the rains turn the area to mud and eventually fills the pond back up with water. We picked up a lot of broken glass and bottles in and around the ponds, which is not good for the waterfowl.
Stewart Park Natural Area Cleanup Effort on January 20th
We are going to be doing a trash cleanup in the Stewart Park Natural Area on Monday, January 20th at 9am. My boys and I will be leading a cleanup of the trash along Newton Creek from the corner of Garden Valley Blvd into the Natural Area. The recent high water event washed a significant amount of trash down Newton Creek and fortunately some of it was deposited along the banks of the creek and didn't make it all the way to the South Umpqua River. Now we have an opportunity to pick up that trash before the next high water event. Anyone who would like to join us, bring gloves and if you have boots those can be helpful as well. There is some parking in the area we are going to be working as seen above in the area circled in blue. The entrance is across the street from the Starbucks on Garden Valley blvd. There is other parking nearby or you can park at the Duck Pond and walk over to where we are working. We'd love to have you join us!
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Ryan Finlay
Looking for weekly volunteers to pick up litter at the ponds in Stewart Park
I'm looking for someone, or a few people who would like to help pickup litter around the parking lot and in front of the ponds once per week. It's fun, feels great to be outdoors and to know your actually helping the fish and wildlife and the community all at the same time. Could be one person or a small group, I'll provide the trash grabbers and bags are provided. Takes about 30 minutes or so. Main thing is that it's consistently done, like every Monday morning, or every Saturday morning. If you are interested, just hit reply to this email or you can also email me at ryan@trackerfoundation.com. Thanks everyone!
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Ryan Finlay
We also got the Duck Pond dumpster painted this morning! Here’s some before after photos. We are planning on covering up graffiti like this on a consistent basis throughout our park system. If anyone would like to join us, let me know!
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Ryan Finlay
We had an excellent Tracker Foundation volunteer event this morning at the Stewart Park Natural Area! We got the bathroom painted, litter picked up, and lots of pruning as well as lots of invasive weeds and blackberry removed. The Roseburg High School varsity boys soccer team joined us which was great, and we also had some families and even small children helping do the work. Big thank you to all the volunteers who joined us this morning, you all are awesome. Huge thank you to Jeri Vradenburg and her husband Jon for making breakfast sandwiches for the volunteers this morning! I also want to thank Luann Urban and Nellie Rue for your support! Thank you also to the Roseburg Parks Dept and Liz Hill for all your behind-the-scenes work helping make today happen. Appreciate you all!
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Ryan Finlay
Stewart Park Natural Area & Skate Park Work Day Set for Saturday September 16
Our next volunteer event is going to be this Saturday, September 16th from 8 am until 12 noon over at the Stewart Park Natural Area and Skate Park. The work project is the inaugural event for the Tracker Foundation, a local 501 (C)(3) non-profit we started this past year to work on community benefit projects in the Roseburg area. It’s been a lot of work getting to this point but we are finally all set up and excited to get started. Some of the work we plan on doing around the Stewart Park Natural Area and Skate Park includes noxious weed removal, pruning to improve the line of sight and sense of safety, litter cleanup, graffiti removal, and more. Our overall goal is to restore the habitat of the area to a healthy state, including stopping soil erosion into the ponds and planting trees, shrubs, and native grasses. We want to get rid of all the invasive weeds and invasive plants around the ponds and natural areas as well. We aim to transform this beautiful place into a haven where families, kids, and the community can always feel secure and welcome. Kids are welcome at this event with their parents! Teenagers can come volunteer without parents being there but there is a waiver that would need to be signed by a parent or guardian. Some of the jobs include picking up litter around the area, pulling weeds, cutting invasive plants and blackberry bushes, and throwing them in a dumpster. There will also be a few graffiti painting projects. We will be providing some breakfast-type snacks and drinks for the volunteers. What to Bring: Work gloves would be helpful, especially if pruning or pulling weeds. There is lots of work to be done with loppers and pruners if you have them and would like to help in that way. We have one big gorilla cart and a few brute garbage cans to transport brush to the dumpster but could use a few more if anyone has them. We have some extra pruners if someone doesn’t have them. We also have lots of trash grabbers and we’ll provide trash bags. I look forward to seeing many of you! -Ryan Finlay For those of you who would like to support our work financially, you can do so here: https://www.trackerfoundation.com/donate
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Ryan Finlay
Stewart Park Natural Area & Skate Park Improvement Project Work Day Sept 16
Save the Date! We are having a Fall work event at the Stewart Park Natural Area and Skate Park coming up! When: Saturday, September 16 from 8:00 am-12:00 pm What: Tracker Foundation Volunteer Event/Fall cleanup. We’ll be doing lots of projects to improve the area such as weeding, trash pickup, graffiti removal, possibly some planting and more! Where: Stewart Park Natural Area (Duck Pond) & Skate Park To stay informed and hear the latest updates on this project and future work days, sign up for our newsletter here. https://www.trackerfoundation.com/newsletter
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Ryan Finlay