| Synopsis of S.O.S. Green Team and Summer Career Placement Program for 2000 The S.O.S. green team got back to work in the fourth of May this year. As usual it took a while a to get everyone accustomed to green team work. For the first few days the challenge was teaching the members to use the equipment. Some items like clippers and garbage bags were pretty straightforward, but when they saw the hook they responded with �What is that!?� The most difficult equipment hurdle was teaching the green team members how to canoe in a manner that left us dry and right side up. This was a challenging task and by no means easy but we always had our life jackets and worked safely and had no major upsets. During the early months (May, June) when the heat of summer was not fully upon us we spent a good deal of our time planting trees. We started the major planting with the S.O.S. greening on June the 3rd. Between then and the end of summer we managed to put over 2000 trees in the ground. Many different species were planted including oaks, ash, maple, dogwood etc. Before planting the trees I had to scout the riverbank to find acceptable locations for planting. Another major part of the summer job was the cleaning of the actual river itself. As usual the garbage piled up extensively since last year, and we had to get ourselves dirty to get it out. We used canoes to collect most of the garbage and took it by hand if we could get close enough. For the larger items we usually used the hook or hip waders. Cleaning garbage by canoe was done at different times throughout the entire summer. Another of the major aspects of the job was the maintenance of a canoe-able river. Every now and then a tree would fall across and block the river, and have to be removed. This was done with saws and muscles, a chainsaw as used if the tree was large enough. The green team members were not allowed to use the chainsaw so I had to perform all of the chainsaw work. Trail work was another major part of the green team work. It consisted of us scouting and cutting the trail, leading to working alongside a hired bobcat and flattening, spreading, and packing new trail. We also re-covered and maintained older trails along the river. Other main aspects of green team work include scouting the river for locations and other S.O.S. purposes, tree wrapping, clearing the siphon at the floodway, distributing flyers, watering the trees we planted and some sites from previous years, and maintenance and purchase of new equipment. The main aspects of the supervisor position included, deciding what work was to be done and when. It included contacting team members on rain days and for other reasons. As supervisor I also managed the time sheets and payroll for the team. Though the summer was at times too hot, too cold, too rainy, and at all times possessing of too many mosquitoes, it was enjoyable work. To work on the team allowed you time outdoors and in nature, some days getting to work was a nice stress reliever. This year�s team got along great, and at the end of August when the positions expired; every green team member remarked that they had never had a better job. |