MRNPA's First Work Party of 2016

This is an excerpt from an email sent out by John Titland, Volunteer Coordinator for the Mount Rainier National Park Associates.  If you are interested in joining on this work party or learning more about this exciting partner group, please visit mrnpa.org.

The first Mount Rainier National Park Associates trails work party of this season will be on Saturday, April 30th.  I do not yet know where we will be working.  It has been a good snow year, not like last year, so we will most likely be working at either Longmire or Carbon River.  I will inform you as soon as I know. The meeting time is, as always, between 8:30 and 9:00 AM.  Be ready to head out by 9:00 AM.

 

If you plan to attend, please reply to this email to indicate that you are coming and to tell me how many volunteers you are bringing with you.

 

There are safety equipment requirements for all MRNPA trail work volunteers. (These rules apply to all trail workers.)  Anyone using an aggressive tool - like a Pulaski, ax, shovel, etc. - or anyone working near them - is required to wear a hard hat and safety glasses.  People working with or near a less aggressive tools are not required (but will be encouraged) to wear a hard hat.  If you own a hard hat that you can wear, please bring it.  If you do not have a hard hat, we and the NPS have hard hats that we loan for the day.

Wearing safety glasses is encouraged at all times. Not all safety glasses are comfortable for everyone and some will not fit over eye glasses.  Because of cleanliness issues, some people don’t like wearing safety glasses that have been worn by other people.  For these reasons, and probably many others, please purchase (acquire, find, dig-up, whatever) a pair of personal safety glasses that you will wear.  The local hardware store is a good place to start shopping.  A serviceable pair or safety glasses will cost about $10.  And be advised that shatterproof eye glasses do not meet the requirement for safety glasses. Safety glasses all have side protection which eyeglasses do not.

Mount Rainier National Park Associates: Jacks and Jills of All Trades

The volunteers at Mount Rainier National Park Associates have many talents: trail work in any and all weather conditions, invasive species removal (or conquering alien invaders), revegetation of once destroyed meadows, and advocating for Mount Rainier National Park.  MRNPA has been a longtime partner of Mount Rainier, and over the years have played a crucial role in preservation of the beautiful resources that we all share in the park.  This year, MRNPA has volunteered 468 hours doing trails projects, 84 hours participating in the annual "deveg" day, removing exotic species, and 170 hours replanting native species in the former Sunrise Camp.  This totals to 720 hours of volunteering, equating to a value of $16,610.40!!

A huge thank you is in order to the Mount Rainier National Park Associates for all of their hard work and their longstanding dedication to the park over the past 30 years! 

 

Interested in learning more about MRNPA?  Seeing some of the projects they have participated in over the years?  Learning how to sign up for the next projects?  Visit www.mrnpa.org today!