Hello Everyone, 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, April 23 and 24, FOSM volunteers worked on three activities -- Earth Day event, clean-up along the Cienega Nature Trail, and collection of juniper branches for Christmas ornaments. 

1. Earth Day Event -- The SRD demonstrations for Earth Day were on Tuesday, April 23, for the second through fifth grade students from A. Montoya Elementary School in Tijeras. Local wildlife and outdoor agencies and organizations presented demonstrations and handed out information about various outdoor topics including Smokey Bear and wildfire. Jim Levesque and Sam Beard were at a table with a display of crosscut saws and pruning saws. One-inch disks were cut from a 5-inch diameter log with a one-person crosscut saw with Jim or Sam on the D-handle end of the saw and a student on the small end of the saw with the short vertical handle. Many students enjoyed sawing, and some even stayed at the table and made more than one cut. The disks were given to the students. 

2. Clean-up along Cienega Nature Trail -- On Wednesday, April 24, eleven volunteers limbed and bucked fallen trees along the Cienega Nature Trail, one of two trails that FOSM has adopted. The paved trail was swept and, in general, the area was cleaned up in preparation for opening the picnic area in May. Branches from the large Rocky Mountain juniper near the second restroom were piled on the road, and the slash from the Nature Trail was piled in the group area parking lot. We are planning to chip this slash on May 8. The bucked wood was moved by wheel barrow, loaded on two USFS pickups, and hauled to the SRD shop area where it will be stored until it is donated to needed families in the East Mountain area.  Volunteers working on Wednesday were Lou Romero, Steve Roholt, Eric Russell, Sam Beard, Jerry Carroll, Dan Benton, Rav Nicholson, Ray and Marilyn Carroll (Jerry's brother and sister-in-law), Sim Cook, and Jim Levesque.  Photos are presented in the attached Word document.

3. Collection of Juniper Branches for Christmas Ornaments -- At the request of Esther Nelson, SRD Wildlife Biologist, about three dozen juniper branches were collected as part of a project to make ornaments for the Capital Christmas Tree from the Carson National Forest. The 3 to 5-inch diameter branches will be cut into one-inch disks with red centers and white rims.  

Sam Beard, Projects Chair

Friends of the Sandia Mountains