Ninja Power!

Hey Everybody! We're group #7 (Sean, James, Josh, Seth, Aurora, Jordan, and Desi), the Ninjas! We have all been having a great time working for FYS this summer, and we thought we would share some of our cool experiences over the last month of work with all of you :)

Week #1: We worked with group #8, the Jaguars, trimming Western White Pines on the 119 spur off the 65 road, as well as watering over 400 trees by hand for the Underwood Conservation District (see the Jaguars blog above for more details). We learned that trimming the Western White Pine can prevent death by blister rust by up to 50%!

Week #2: This week we Ninjas had the opportunity and privilege of working alongside group #4, the Wood Elves, doing boundary work with a member of the forest service. In this week we cleared over 3,300 ft. of dense boundary line across steep and challenging hillsides using compasses and hard-work! This was done on the south side of Oklahoma Campground up in Willard (off the 1840 road), and on the north side as well.

Week #3: This week only we Ninjas were trusted upon to take care of the Wind River Experimental Forest's Arboretum.

We cleared acres of bracken fern, unwanted native species of vegetation like Chinquapin and Douglas Fir, and cleared over 1/2 a mile of trail that had become extremely grown over (pictured below; notice the three trees).

This was an amazing project, and we were able to witness the effects that this 97 year old experiment had to offer. We learned that indigenous species do best in their native surroundings, although their offspring may be able to readily adapt. We also learned to watch out for bees and yellow jackets...OUCH!

Week #4: This week the Ninjas worked side-by-side with members of group #5, the O-Tangs, in temperatures over 100 degrees! On Monday and Tuesday we worked at Catherine Creek. We helped to construct a 25 ft. long footbridge, build a 20 ft. long stone wall to prevent unwanted traffic from entering the park, and paint several benches. On Wednesday and Thursday we picked noxious weeds like Tansy Ragwort, and Canadian Thistle at Lost Meadow off the 2420 road near Trout Lake with member of the Skamania County Noxious Weed Board.

After a week of hard work the Ninjas had earned themselves a little time in the cool water!

Next week is our final week and we look forward to a few more days of work before we have our end of the summer camp out, not to mention our luncheon at the Skamania Lodge to congratulate the workers on a summer of good ole' fashion hard-work!

~Columbia, this is FYS group #7 on Defiance...we are out of service of the day!
~Ninja_Master87