By: Lisa Tasker
(Botanist/Ecologist)
Just north of Rifle, Colorado, on Saturday, May 11th – CNHP will be hosting a fun-filled, volunteer riparian restoration planting day with the NRCS and the Middle Colorado Watershed Council at the Rifle Creek Ranch. Restoration activities will take place here along with a free lunch, all just 5 minutes north of Rifle, CO. We are looking for lots of volunteers that Saturday who want to be a part of this long-term project where we are increasing native plant diversity and habitats for birds and native pollinators. This section of Rifle Creek has had tamarisk and Russian olive trees removed along with treatments of aggressive non-native grasses, all of which had impacted, degraded, and simplified the native plant community. Ranch owner John Powers is intent on improving these stream-side plant communities and CNHP is helping him plan and implement a long-term restoration strategy. The time for on-the-ground action has arrived! The goal is for local community members, students, master gardeners’, natural resource buffs, members of the Middle Colorado Watershed Council, local landowners, and anyone interested to come help and then follow the results of the these efforts for years to come. So come help us get 1,400 native plants in the ground on May 11th! Well… and there is always that free lunch! To sign up, please email ReviveRifleCreek@gmail.com
