Next week, in July, our summer culvert monitoring season will begin. If the rains stop in time, that is. I’m excited to see if we’ll find any difference in culvert use compared to winter, and if there will be new species leaving their footprints. First though, a big task loomed: Cleaning the nearly 100 dirty-from-winter track plates. Something I’ve delayed and delayed, because the prospect of spending a full day scrubbing soot, road salts and dirt off plates just didn’t sound very pleasant.
Last week, though, help arrived in the form our two of our amazing Banff National Park Volunteers. We have a small but dedicated team of long-term volunteers who greatly contribute to doing the photoclassification, wildlife crossing structure camera checks, and wolverine work. When I mentioned the dirty plates to Pam, she very quickly assured me that she and her husband Dale would be willing to help out, so on the next sunny morning we staged an extreme-scrubbing session (including stylish dust masks):
Two and a half (!) hours later the plates were clean, the overalls black, and, best of all, it had actually been fun.
This whole project wouldn’t be doable without the help of volunteers, and I really appreciate that they will also jump in when there’s less than glorious work to be done.
…they will get dirty again, and there will be more scrubbing, but not all 100 plates at once. Now, if only the rain stopped falling!!
