Boulevard Woods

Site is Prepped for Earth Day Celebration

To get the Barber St. site ready for an Earth Day Celebration on April 22, the previous Saturday a small crew of volunteers removed new plant growth and repositioned some downed tree limbs and stumps to create a small--and temporary--outdoor "theater" to host the poetry reading part of the program.

The armory of tools for the day's work. Most of these were borrowed from the Keep Athens-Beautiful program.

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Refreshments for volunteers as provided by Bruce and Jane Travis (again).

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Larry Slutzky battling new privet shoots.

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Todd Hutchison cleaning up in the poetry reading "theater."

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Rachel Watkins at work on removing some of the "trip wire" vines on a path.

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The poetry reading theater space before the volunteers got to work.

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After.

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Earth Day prep volunteers included: Charles Apostolik, Eppie Boze, Todd Hutchison, Dan Lorentz, Larry Slutzky, Bruce Travis, Jane Travis, Rachel Watkins and Kevan Williams. Special thanks to: Stacee Farrell and Susan Reese from the Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful program, and Roger Cauthen and the ACC Landscape Division for timely mowing. We were also delighted to be visited by project volunteers Marci White and Harper while on their way to other obligations.

Tree Inventory and Health Assessment Underway

Trees are a great asset to any park site, and they are a vital component of the Barber Street site. But the lack of good pruning care and prevalence of invasive vines strangling the trunks and branches undermines the health of the trees.  As anyone who has walked through the Barber Street parcel can see, the trees there are certainly being challenged by invasive vines. (Above, trees wrapped by English Ivy vines.)

But help is on the way.

Lindsey Hutchison (pictured in photo below) and Allison Dublinski are conducting an inventory and health assessment of the trees on the upper part of the site--the space where a future park is most likely to be situated. Petersen and Dublinski are second-year students in UGA's Masters of Landscape Architecture program and currently enrolled in an Urban Tree Management course through the Forestry School.

"Through our tree inventory and health assessment, we hope to provide the information and guidance needed to ensure the vitality of the trees in any implemented design as well as safeguard the park visitors," Petersen and Dublinski say.

The tree inventory is a project for the course the students are taking. They expect to complete the project by the end of April. When it's done, the Barber Street Park Project Volunteers will be given a report including a map of tree locations and accompanying data describing each significant tree (diameter 15" or greater) and recommendations for care.

Broken branches hanging from vines.

[Photos by Lindsey Petersen and Allison Dublinski]

Trash Pick-Up and (Belated) Birthday Party

On Saturday, March 20--the first day of Spring--a small crew of us volunteers picked the Barber St. site clean of litter, and hauled-out a small plastic pool, a purple bra, several feet of plastic tubing, an ancient car battery and many pounds more of assorted junk. We also removed a pile of tree limbs and relocated some stumps and larger logs for potential future use.

Oh yes, and we still had time to chat with Commissioner Kelly Girtz, who stopped by on his own trash pick-up rounds, and to present a birthday/thank you cake, card and flowers to a helpful neighbor.

Here are photos from Saturday, March 20's work day/birthday party:

Katie Medina poses with trash pinchers and garbage bag.

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Henry Parker prefers to pick trash by hand and uses a bucket.

Eric Heil invents a labor-saving log-rolling technique.

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Rachel Watkins helps sort tree limbs. We kept the bigger logs and stumps for possible future use for the park. You can glimpse the trash and junk we collected behind Rachel. (I meant to take a photo of that, but forget to.)

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Charles "Trucker Charlie" Apostolik chauffeured the trash, tree limbs along with a couple volunteers to help with unloading, to Athens Clarke-Co. Landscape Division's recycling, trash and yard waste bins located on the West end of Boulevard.

Barber Street Park Project volunteers Dan Lorentz and Marci White present a cake and flowers to Ms Ida Mae Griffin. Ms Griffin lives in the yellow house on Barber St. right next to the site. She turned 91 earlier in March, and has been a neighbor to the site for decades.

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Ida Mae with cake and card. The cake and card were sponsored by the Boulevard Neighborhood Association. The flowers (in the photo above) were donated by Eppie Boze, a park volunteer and neighborhood resident.

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Ida Mae and her daughter Tennie Brookins. Ms Griffin and Ms Brookins have been very generous in allowing the park project volunteers to use their driveway to access the site.

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Spring Cleaning volunteers included: Charles Apostolik, Eppie Boze, Eric Heil, Dan Lorentz, Katie Medina, Henry Parker, Rachel Watkins and Marci White.

Special thanks to: Stacee Farrell, executive director of Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful, for loaning us trash pinchers, buckets and trash bags. Roger Cauthen, Athens-Clarke Co. Landscape Management Division, for arranging access to recycling, trash and yard waste bins. Bruce Lonnee, Athens-Clarke Co. Planning Department, for approving an Environmental Areas Permit for our continuing limited cleaning and trimming work on the site. Boulevard Neighborhood Association for sponsoring the cake. Ida Mae Griffin and Tennie Brookins, once again, for use of their driveway.

Operation "Move Brush Pile"

Greg Denzin, operating a small excavator, moved a massive brush pile at the Barber St. park site curbside on Sunday, Feb. 14.  Moving the pile will make it easier for  Athens-Clarke Co.'s Solid Waste department to remove it this coming week, when Boulevard neighborhood is scheduled for a periodic leaf and limb pick-up.

It took Denzin and his equipment less than an hour to move the brush pile. Denzin, who owns G&G Landscape Design, tries to minimize his environmental impact. His John Deere excavator runs on bio-diesel, and he insisted on scattering some grass seeds and pine needles to cover tread tracks.

The brush pile before the move

Where the piled used to be

Waiting curbside for leaf and limb pick-up

Thanks Greg!

Thanks as well to Stacee Farrell, executive director of Keep Athens-Clarke Co. Beautiful, and Roger Cauthen in Athens-Clarke Co. Landscape Management Division for helping to coordinate the leaf and limb pick-up.

While the volunteer work day originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13 had to be canceled due to snow, Bruce and Jane Travis were prepared to provide some very nice refreshments for volunteer workers; Shawn Doonan of Tarzan Tree Care was poised to offer help and equipment and Ben Myers of 1000 Faces Coffee was set--for the second weekend now--to provide free coffee for the volunteers. Thanks to Bruce, Jane and Shawn and Ben!

Work Day 2: New Areas Cleared, Trails Blazed

After postponing for a week because of bad weather, volunteers resumed clearing work Sat. Feb. 6 at the Barber St. site.

The ground was sodden, the wind cold and the work day shortened (to allow the ground to drain off a little from heavy rains the night before) but volunteers generated big brush piles while clearing three new areas and pushed forward on trail blazing. Once again 13 people showed up to help, but most were new faces.

Here are photos from Work Day 2:

Karen Freed and Eric Heil haul brush to a pile

Cat Dunleavy pries a Honeysuckle shrub from the ground

Kelly Ridenhour gathers cut vines

David Shillcut with loppers

Gary Crider with tarp

Anna Claire Davis near wall in newly cleared area

Stella, Anna Claire Davis's dog, taking in the scene

Jim Okey clearing out brush

Kevan Williams and Abby Moore on their way up to dump a load of brush

Dan Lorentz tries to cut a vine

Work in the lower terraces as viewed from top level of site

One of the three newly cleared areas

Work Day 2 Volunteers included: "Chainsaw" Charles Apostolik, Gary Crider, Anna Claire Davis, Cat Dunleavy, Karen Freed, Eric Heil, Dan Lorentz, Abby Moore, James Okey, Kelly Ridenhour, David Shillcutt, Stella, Allen Stovall, Kevan Williams

Special thanks to:  Robert Gunn for supplying some yummy sandwiches.

Volunteers Start Clearing Work

On Saturday, Jan. 23, thirteen volunteers started clearing and surveying work on the Barber St. site.  Here are a few photos from that day and some before-and-after shots.

Clearing and surveying work

Allen Stovall whacks weeds.

Marci White with pruners.

Chase Lawrence cuts a downed tree limb.

Greg Denzin (left), Lori Ringhand and Robert Gunn haul a log.

Katherine Melcher (left), Henry Parker and Kevan Williams add notations to a site survey map.

Krysia Haag with tarp.

Before

After

The First Thirteen Volunteers included: Greg Denzin, Matt Elliot, Robert Gunn, Krysia Haag, Chase Lawrence, Dan Lorentz, Katherine Melcher, Henry Parker, Lori Ringhand, Allen Stovall, Justin Widener, Kevan Williams and Marci White.

Special thanks to: Bruce and Jane Travis for supplying snacks, Ida Mae Griffin and Tennie Brookins for use of their driveway and Shawn Doonan of Tarzan Tree Care for the chipper and chipping crew.