Last Saturday, the staff and crew leaders headed over to the Albany County Fairgrounds for the Laramie River Conservation Expo. For me, Albany County is small in population, so I was surprised to see so many conservation organizations that operate within our watershed. It just goes to prove how many innovative and driven people there are, even in the smallest of communities. There were a lot of creative green-business ideas, and some federal and state agency representatives were there as well. It truly felt like a collaborative environment.
The WCC manned the stream erosion trailer. If you’ve ever seen a sandbox used for combat tactics or wildand firefighting education, think this – except geared towards erosion. We molded the “sand” (actually recycled plastic), into a winding stream and then regulated the flow to show how increased and decreased flow affect the creation of cutbanks and sweepbanks. We also had rocks and fake vegetation to show how certain features in a riparian area can help mitigate these erosion effects. This trailer is mostly geared towards kids, but I found that the little kids just wanted to play with the sand – it was the adults who took genuine and curious interest.
Also, we helped Jeff Edwards build a hoop house to raffle off at the end of the expo. Since many of us have been working on raised beds and the tiny house projects in the past few months, it was cool to come together as one unit and build something as a finely tuned machine. Our construction skills, and our growth together as a team are coming along remarkably well. No one lost any fingers or eyes. The hoop house looks rock solid. Word around the crew leaders is that Harper might build one to live out of… I always knew she was capable of photosynthesis.
Keep your chains sharp and your boots laced tight,
Ryan
Wyoming Conservation Corps 