new to me...

I've been receiving emails with lots of 'opportunties' to volunteer in the community, through the Master Gardening group. Some of the offers come from our County Agents' office. She is the one who sponsors the MG program, and is, I guess, ultimately responsible for our good behavior. Meaning she gets the blame if things go wrong, and might, possibly, remotely receive the credit for all the good the group does in support of community programs. J.D. is also the person who provides the training for MG wannabes, year after year, helping to provide the basic education classes (based on UGA Dept. of Ag. research) for hundreds of locals, from varied backgrounds, with a common interest.

A recent opportunity to do some work (which amounted to someone hoping for free labor in exchange for providing training/experience - plus countable volunteer hours in community service) was to help stabilize a stream in Phenix City. I assume it feeds into the Chattahoochee River watershed if not directly into the river. I believe the opportunity was tendered by the county agent in Russell County, which borders Muscogee County just across the state line. They were looking for help to 'install live stakes' in the drainage area of the creek. At first, I thought that was a typo too! Then thought: why would anyone want to add more live snakes into the creek???

As it turns out, new to me: "Live stakes are dormant hardwood cuttings that are driven into the stream bed where they intercept stream base flow and eventually produce roots, shoots and leaves. This is an inexpensive and easy method to install stream vegetation." Makes sense I guess. And if only half the cuttings that are 'installed' survive to turn into growing saplings and eventually trees, I can see how they would be beneficial for any number of reasons: preventing erosion, maintaining creek banks, slowing flow during rains, etc. But calling the process 'installing' sounds really odd, don't you think?

There were some students from Auburn Univ. who had signed on to help with the project. And I assume the county agent across the river was looking for some additional manpower from GA Master Gardening volunteers. I think this 'installation' occurred last Saturday, when my day was so full there was no way I could squeeze in time to go wading in the creek....