The Nature Center-Week 2


The second week of going to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge was more easy-going for me than the previous week. This may be due to the fact that it was not raining in the morning, therefore not making the ground muddy when we tried to work in it. This week, our task was to clean out the various debris and leaves and cut away the shrubbery that had started to overgrow on one of the trails by the buffalo ranges. We were to also be careful and to sweep the dirt on the boards of the outlook area because the boards had started to age and get holes in them.

While cutting down tree branches I stepped on a board, which gave way and my foot formed a hole on the trail within the first twenty minutes so I guess I took that advice with a grain of salt. After that happened I thought to myself, “Well this week is going to be fantastic if this is how it starts.” As soon as I got into the swing of things, however, I found myself enjoying the work. Being able to come in to see a mess of tree branches and bushes and leaving a clean deck area felt great because you can see the impact of your work immediately. We sawed tree branches and other brush, and I’ll admit it was fun working with a machete at a given time. I mostly picked up chopped branches and twigs and took them back to the trailer so that they can be dumped out somewhere else. As brush built up in the truck, I was surprised at the progress the class had in two hours on the area.

Before we began, one of the workers there said that the nature center had recently lost a full-time male employee who went off to work somewhere else, and so now there were only about three women trying to upkeep the entire property. Furthermore, they were about to lose their summer interns due to the internships ending in October, and so I felt more humble being able to help them complete tasks in order for them to be able to focus their effort elsewhere. The trail we worked on had also been closed for some time and now it is closer to being open again.

I left the center more fulfilled and cannot wait to see what project we will work on next week.


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