Making Room for the Cottonwoods

Students from the University of Texas at Austin came out to Moab in March to volunteer for the third straight year. In fact, two members of the group were here with us last year. As student, Jessica Medlyn put it, "This experience was unforgettable. It was the perfect combination of fun, hard work, great food, and wonderful people". That must be why they keep returning. Their favorite project was removing Tamarisk from a spring site near the Slickrock Bike Trail (we got it all, without chemicals).
Recently, Plateau Restoration has been putting effort into weed control around critical upland water resources without the use of chemicals. For Tamarisk, this means digging down and cutting the tree below the root crown. An unexpected spin-off is that this activity is really popular. Shelly Tran, a UT student from last year said "we showed team work and enthusiasm and enjoyed the task completely". There's plenty more Shelly.