This past Saturday’s volunteer workday was what we expect to be the last cattail cutting for this year. The volunteers concentrated on widening the lake access on the south shore and also did some additional cattail tidying around the boat landing and the northeast corner of the lake.
Here they are at work on the south shore:
Volunteers load cut cattails into the boat for transport back across the lake. Left to right: Patricia Barroso, Al Canguahuala, Kevin Jimenez (mostly hidden), Ben Stapp, Fang-shu Liu, Dean McHenry. ©Nancy Hamlett.
And here are some of the volunteers with the giant pile of cattails from four weeks of cutting – the whole pile was too big to fit into the picture!
Some of the volunteers with part of the enormous pile of conquered cattails. Left to right: Dean McHenry, Al Canguahuala, Sebastian Canguahuala, Kevin Jimenez, Fang-shu Liu, and Patricia Barroso. ©Nancy Hamlett.
And here’s the south shore of the lake showing the change over the last month:
Cattail clearing on the south shore of the lake. Top: before (September 13), middle: during (September 30), bottom: after (October 20), with volunteers hauling away the last of the cut cattails. ©Nancy Hamlett.
You will note that the large willow tree in the center of the access area is missing in the bottom photo. That was not the result of volunteers; the tree blew down in the Santa Ana winds earlier in the week. The highest gust recorded by the BFS weather station on Monday was 38 mph.
The next volunteer workday with be November 3, with the activity to be announced. Check our volunteer page for more information.