On August 27th, 2020 Hurricane Laura hit Lake Charles as a category 4 hurricane. As a result the area was devastated, buildings were in ruins, downed trees were everywhere, and the area in general was just destroyed. To help give relief to the area, on March 17th, 2021, the GulfCorps crew of Louisiana Conservation Corps (LaCC) traveled to Tuten Park in Lake Charles, LA. We were given the task to clear the perimeter of the park’s pine loop trail. This portion of the park had little work done prior, and there was much to be done. The objective was to clear a path wide enough for vehicles to get through in order to further the restoration process. Armed with chainsaws, our team spent the next week sawing through downed trees and more vines than you can imagine. The trail was dense with debris, there were instances where you couldn’t see the path ahead of you. Walls of vines 8ft tall and 12ft deep were common obstacles we faced. We met our objectives safely and effectively, and at the same time exceeded the expectations of our project partner. This is one of the most memorable hitches I have been on yet, and I am happy to have been a part of the restoration process!

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The average adult walks 10,000 steps a day. It may not seem like a lot, but over time that is 70,000 steps a week, 300,000 steps a month, and 3,650,000 steps a year. That’s a lot of shoes to go through in our lifetime, but an even greater amount of dirt that is moved around on the surface of the planet.

This means that walking paths are extremely important in conservation efforts. They allow us to experience nature without trampling endangered plants and animals and changing the landscape.

Over time, surfaces like trails can wear away, or if not done correctly can wash away. Recently, our crew had the opportunity to help restore trail in Byers Trailhead in Austin. Over the week, my crew put in two water bars, seven check steps, two drains and seven box steps. Each of these are important in keeping the trail maintained. Water bars and check steps help prevent water from washing away sediment. Drains allow water to move off the trail naturally, so the trail does not erode. Box steps help the trail decline at a lower grade, so hikers feel like they are walking down steps instead of running down the side of a mountain.

Working on this project was a lot of hard work, but a very rewarding experience to see the end product. The next time you have the chance to walk a trail, take a closer look at it. Even though a trail looks like it was naturally placed there, there was a lot of design behind the scenes in placing and forming it.

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From May 6th to May 15th, our crew was hard at work in the Pine-forested utopias of The Angelina and Sabine National forests. Spring floods had left many of the recreational areas of the forests unusable and the summer camping season was fast approaching. Our primary overall task was to remove downed trees and trash from camping areas and thoroughly clean any campground structures.

Between rampant thunderstorms and driving rain, our crew ran chainsaws through countless tanks of fuel to buck the large pine trees littering campsites into pieces small enough to move. When enough timber was removed, we were able to come in with tractors, trimmers, and mowers to manicure each individual campsite. Over the eight days that we spent in the forests, we bounced back and forth between 4 of the major recreation areas and covered more than 500 miles on the road. All sites that we visited were opened to the public the day we left.

Weather played a major factor during this trip. Rain was a threat almost every day. Aside from the satisfaction of working to open public land that we all cared deeply about, this hitch was an unbelievable team building experience. Through all of the time spent dodging the rain, sliding through the mud, and sweating it out in the unbelievable humidity, we found solace in each other’s company. We returned to our Austin base exhausted, but as a smiling and cohesive unit ready to take on the rest of the season.

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Caprock Canyons State Park was beckoning us for our 6th hitch to do maintenance on the quickly eroding trails there. Waterbars, check steps, rubble walls and drainages needed to be built, put in, and touched up. Few of us had experience doing that and some of us have never been in the desert or seen a canyon before.

After a full long day of driving, we entered the park at sunset. Wow! Mountains! Bison strolling on the road! As tired as we were after a whole day of driving, we all crawled out of the van at the visitors center and limped on our half asleep from the drive legs to the edge of a cliff to snap photos of the setting sun behind the towering canyons and grazing bison in the distance.

The next morning we chewed on our breakfast and watched millions of stars fade away, the early sun rays illuminated the vistas all around us. Red, orange, brown cliffs with splashes of green on the towering canyon walls were aglow all around us! Whoa! Everywhere you looked the red giants guarded us, giving their morning salutations to welcome us. These gorgeous lands and canyons were going to be our home and walls for the next ten days!

We had two set work sites going on Haynes Ridge Overlook Trail, which is about 600ft of elevation gain from the trailhead to the top. One worksite, which was at the very top, needed rock steps and a rubble wall built. The other site, about 300ft below that point, needed waterbars and check steps built and a few features reinforced. Our legs protested carrying all the tools up the steep, loose rock and way over 8 percent grade trail. The two-ton griphoist was extra nasty to the knees, but our hearts and minds loved it.

Some of us struggled with the steep hike to the worksite in our bulky workboots and pounds of water in our packs. The heat was excruciating, the red sand was in every nook and cranny of our clothes, gear, pots, and bodies.  A few of us got away with just scratches from spikey desert plants, some of us sunburnt, and some with smashed fingers, but the crew persevered and we not only completed the planned work but did extra maintenance, fixing up eroded waterbars and junk walls in many areas. We put in 6 new huge check steps, 4 waterbars, repaired a check step, cleared 3 existing waterbars, and installed 8 rocks stairs!!!

Our strong team bond helped us excel, work well together, and exceed our set goals on this hitch. Heavy winds and epic thunderstorms broke one of our tents and everyone was glad to have helped rebuild and come up with shelter solutions. Instead of retiring to our tents after dinner, all of us hung out together playing games or just cracking jokes and just lounging in each other’s company. It was a whole other camping experience with the crew this hitch. We were closer because of our isolation from the public and being in new territory. We were eight people working and camping just a few feet from one another on a daily basis, and all was well. Caprock is truly magical. It brought us even closer together.

A few days before the end of our hitch, our off-highway-vehicle, Ranger, got a deflated tire. We waited for the park’s staff to come rescue us. Dennis from maintenance showed up to save us and fixed the Ranger’s flat only for the other one to get another flat later in the day. Dennis helped us with numerous back and forth rides to carry out our camp stuffs and tools back to the parking lot. He helped patch the injured Ranger up and answered our trillion questions about the park.

This hitch has been a productive adventure. We did good work, grew as a team, and explored together. On behalf of TAT, I want to thank everyone who planned our hitches, this one and previous ones, and who made it all possible. Such exposure to skills, people, parks, and new regions of Texas are tremendously valuable experiences, making everyone a better person and the world truly a better place. I wish many future TAT teams to have amazing hitches and mind-blowing, life changing experiences like we are continually having this season.

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“May this fast vibrating frequency stay on its tune or higher” wrote Yuliya in our hitch journal on February 2, the halfway point. Reading back through the journal to catch up on what others had felt, especially Yuliya’s quote, signaled to me that we are composing a symphony here. The pluck of crew leader Amber’s ukulele and the twang of member Cassidy’s banjo, the squish and slice of hazel hoes and McCleods in the mud, sawtooth to wood, pick-mattock on rock, cutter to stump, laughter by way of silly jokes and fun pranks, sizzle of fried potatoes in the cast iron, the whine of the spigot as we fill our bottles, a sigh at the end of the day, each tired “good morning” at the beginning.

We cheered and hooted in the van on our way to the trail when we saw the wild pigs running so fast in the pasture, we awed and cooed at the cows and bulls almost every trip, we shouted and booed the raccoon when he so brazenly stole the chips off our picnic table. Our song is metered in feet and drainage dips, hummed in the key of our sweat, and counted off by our tool inventory each morning and afternoon.

This composition is imperfect as of yet, but we are taking the time to write it. Every foot of trail cut and every camp chore done reminds us of our commitment to the song. We stretch in the morning like we’re dancing to our own tune, and we debrief each afternoon like we’re listening to what we’ve written. It’s a peculiar thing to realize, seeing as how we never agreed to write a song at all. But here we are, a team of trail builders and maestros, creating our opus. Wish us luck!

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We’ve officially completed the first week of our second deployment to the Florida Panhandle. Though we are back in the same region, responding to the same disaster (Hurricane Michael), this deployment looks and feels like a different creature than the first.

To start out, we’re not staying in giant industrial government tents, but rather at the campus of a Christian retreat. Unsurprisingly, four walls and a ceiling, access to indoor showers and toilets, and actual beds to sleep in make a big difference for quality of life as compared to tents, porta-potties, and cots. Indeed, morale is high, and the mood is markedly different from that of the last deployment, and not just because we’re staying in an actual building (right next to a beautiful beach, I might add).

Nearly three months have passed since the initial impact of Hurricane Michael, one of the strongest storms to strike the continental United States in recorded history. The life-saving first-response period is over, and though there is still much need and many people waiting to be helped, the response in the so-called Forgotten Coast has now fully phased into medium and long-term recovery. Those with the greatest need have already been helped, and immediate threats to life have been addressed. These realities, coupled with the fact that the AmeriCorps Disaster Response Team (ADRT) Mission is slated to terminate at the end of the month, make for a more relaxed atmosphere. The pressure of responding during the first month of the hurricane’s landfall has subsided, and the knowledge that the mission will most likely not be extended means that we can focus on helping survivors without fear of overstretching ourselves or fatigue.

The nature of our work is also different. During the fist deployment our teams mainly ran saws, removing hazard trees and vegetative debris, as well as installed temporary blue roof tarps (Shout out to Tema’s Tarping Team). This time around, the greater need is for mucking and gutting flooded and moldy houses. This involves the nearly complete and systematic deconstruction of a house, removing furniture, household items, floors, carpets, ceilings, walls, cabinets, large appliances, and anything else that may have been damaged by the floodwaters or affected by mold. All this week we’ve been looking like zombie apocalypse survivors decked out in our Tyvek suits and p100 respirators.

The work is dirty, the days are long, but the mood is high, we’re happy to serve, and it seems like everyone is making the most of our second deployment.

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Our Crew alternates project work with three main local partners, and this week we got to work with both Artist Boat and Armand Bayou Nature Center. We began the week by going out to Artist Boat, a preserve on Galveston Island that promotes education about coastal environments.

Artist Boat’s properties are home to a diverse array of flora and fauna, and in order to support them the land requires continual management. We worked at the corral area this week, where years of grazing by cattle has left a distinct mark on the land.

First, we removed Chinese tallow trees from the prairie. We were able to see large, rotting stumps of tallows beneath the persistent re-sprouted growth. This was not the first time these trees had been removed, and it probably will not be the last. Tallow is very resilient, and even when herbicide is applied to the cut stumps the trees can produce new growth.

We cleared old, rotting fence posts out of a corner of the prairie. Artist Boat has received a grant to plant coastal prairie species in this area, so the debris needed to be removed. During the process of carrying the posts, we accidentally disturbed a baby mouse nest. We secured them in their nest and tried to give them some space to recover from the scare we gave them! The old wood also provided great habitat for mushroom growth, and our crew appreciated the opportunity to admire the complex mycelium.

Long barbed wire fences remain on the prairie, vestiges of the ranchers’ handiwork. Now, these fences can harm the prairie. Birds perch on the fences, bringing undigested seeds which spring up and create lines of trees. Along the fence we began removing, the primary tree species was gum bumelia, a tree with long spines that our crew developed a healthy respect for.

The crew spent the final two days of the week at Armand Bayou. On Thursday, we staged one-gallon pots of grasses and forbs to prepare for planting on Prairie Friday. On Friday we were able to get 300 plants in the ground before lunch, and spent the remainder of the day doing bayou trash clean-up.

Next week, our crew will return to Armand Bayou to work on their rookery—this will be different than any project we’ve tackled so far!

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This hitch was a blast for the TAT crew. We spent some time finishing up two of
the bridges in Tyler State Park, started another bridge and a crib wall, as well as
some general trail maintenance. While it has been interesting coming onto a crew
that’s already halfway through their term as a new guy, they have all been very
welcoming. Since everyone on the crew was already fairly experienced, they were
able to help me learn along the way. The jokes, the communal cooking, sweating in
the humidity, and the evenings spent around the fire are all part of the camp life
while out on hitch. By the end of 10 days I felt as if I had known the crew for 10
months.

The weather on this next hitch is expected to be cold, rainy, and absolutely
dreadful, yet somehow I just can’t wait to get back into the woods. My life back in
Austin feels like a waiting period to recuperate for the next push on our trail project.
Somehow the idea of living in a tent sounds better than being in an apartment,
dealing with mosquitoes rather than traffic, smelling like a campfire, sharing food,
and not having wifi sounds really awesome. I’m really excited to get back to waking
up with the sun in the morning, working in the woods all day, and going to sleep
with the stars overhead.

The work isn’t easy, sometimes the food goes bad, and its not always painless to
live and work with the same 8 people for ten days straight, but so far TAT has been
an amazing experience. At the end of the day when you’re tired and sore, you can
look back and see the work you did, and know that it helped make our world a
better place. I hope that feeling warms my heart when it reaches 40 degrees later
this week!

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