What a bizarre winter it has been! January has proven to be a difficult month for us, due mostly to the current drought. Because the soil at our Stanley site is so incredibly compacted and rocky, we had been counting on winter rains to soften the ground for us. Unfortunately, we’ve received almost no rain this winter! We were sadly forced to

Boys helping to lay cages next to holes in preparation for planting.

cancel one of our scheduled volunteer days (Jan. 18th) as the remaining planting holes were too difficult for even our gas-powered augers to dig!

However, we did host 2 very successful volunteer days regardless of the drought. Our public workday on January 4th was awesome and very well attended, and on Martin Luther King Day we hosted a great group from Kaiser! We managed to finish planting the last of our prepped holes on the far end of the site on MLK day, which brings our total number of planted sites to above 1300!

Almost the whole Kaiser group on MLK day. You guys are awesome!

Our staff and apprentices also completed numbering, tagging and recording each individual site, so we can more easily track growth and survivorship among our different species and holes. It was just in time, too, because our once brightly painted cages were definitely starting to fade in the sun and wind. Without a tag or paint color, we would have no idea what had been planted in a hole!

So despite the unforeseen weather hardships, January was a productive month! We will see what February will hold (hopefully lots of rain!).