Written by Foster Mellott, Wild Stew Field Crew Member.
A thin layer of frost lined our tents on the morning of day three. We were camped at the confluence of Fossil Creek and Verde River, a backcountry site without even trail access to it. In order to get there, Hudson Keffer from the Friends of the Verde River guided us three and half miles from the Childs campsite, across the Verde River, over steep rock covered ridges and through thorny brush. As the sun was just starting to melt the frost from our tents, we were all excited to start the work.
Our work this week was to cut and treat invasive Tamarisk and Arundo plants from the Fossil Creek Wild and Scenic River. Under the supervision of Hudson and Chloe, our crew cut 824 Tamarisk stems. Hudson was an absolute wealth of knowledge. He taught us about herbicide mixing, the history of Fossil Creek, bluegrass guitarists and 2000s club music.
Joe, the fourth member of our crew, had to hike in separately a few days behind us after recovering from an off-hitch cold. He ended up hiking from the upstream side of Fossil Creek, to see if the conditions were nicer. In short, they weren’t. Joe has been on most of the Fossil hitches and he is always stoked to be on the Creek. He’s only a few miles away from hiking the entirety of Fossil Creek!
Fossil Creek is one of the longest running river restoration projects in the Nation. The whole Creek used to be dammed up for a power plant, until they removed the dam in the 90s and named it a National Wild and Scenic River. Even though there are invasive species to remove, it’s not super dense and projects like this help to keep the tamarisk and arundo from out-competing native species.
On the hike out, Chloe, Hudson and Joe were able to find an old dirt road that shaved three hours off of our trek. We made it back to Tucson feeling accomplished, that we’re able to do something so challenging and that we can actually make a positive impact!
