I am working in Boulder, Colorado for an organization named Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. There are no members of Water 4 on my 'shuffle round' team. Although I miss my former teammates, Boulder is a little slice of heaven.Our living situation is incredible. We live in what has been referred to as the 'AmeriMansion.' It is an old farmhouse right along the foothills of the Boulder Flatirons. There is a huge living room and kitchen with beautiful views all around. In front of the house is an awesome hike and behind the house are miles of running trails. We have acres of prairie around us and are only a 10 minute drive (or Skip Bus Ride) from downtown on Pearl Street or the University of Colorado campus.
In our free time, my team has been on tons of hikes, taken a tour of the Celestial Seasonings Tea
Factory, been to some great restaurants on Pearl Street, and have many more excursions planned. The weather here is crazy. It can snow 10 inches and then be 70 degrees the following day. It is typically beautiful either way.Our work is very unique. At first glance to the untrained eye, it might only seem as if we are weeding. After spending a lot of time doing service learning and becoming more educated on our project, we learned the purpose and the necessity of removing the invasive species from the Boulder area. We have been pulling Mediterranean Sage and Myrtle Spurge. Neither of these plants is native to Boulder and neither plant is eaten by any animal in the Boulder area. They both grow uncontrolled and kill off many other native plants. Myrtle Spurge also is highly dangerous because it releases a goo that can cause the blistering of skin or blindness. It was some pretty extreme weed pulling.
We have really hilarious and fun supervisors that have worked with AmeriCorps NCCC for a couple years. The best part of the project is where we get to do our work. We have the most beautiful office you can imagine. We have worked near Chautauqua, in Flagstaff, and many other stunning areas of Boulder. It is great to just be outside all the time and do some tough manual labor.
~Ian
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