College of Western Idaho (CWI) Horticulture Technology student, Elizabeth Serocki, spent the weekend organizing a volunteer event to help restore sections of trails at Diane Moore Nature Center in Boise.
The event, in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy and the Intermountain Bird Observatory (IBO), had volunteers reroute a section of a trail along the newly restored side channel at the Center. The purpose of the work is to help prevent erosion along the bank and help keep foot traffic away from the banks and the new riparian plants volunteers have planted along the banks of the side channel.
Serocki has been working alongside IBO since last summer where she also interned through CWI’s Horticulture Technology program. The volunteer event was part of Serocki’s final practicum project for the program.
After some coordinating with IBO’s Director, Greg Kaltenecker, along with other students at CWI and Boise State University and volunteers with Nature Conservancy, IBO, and Micron Technology, Inc., Serocki was able to make the event a huge success!
“Overall, it was a great experience. We had more than 30 volunteers over the two-day event,” said Serocki. “We completed the trail rerouting along the side channel and planted roughly 300 Idaho native riparian plants. This restoration effort is aiding in returning native vegetation along the Boise River and providing habitat for native birds, fish, and pollinators.”
