Forest Park

My experience with forest park is one of somewhat mixed emotions. It wasn’t the most exciting work, seeing as how the vast majority of my time at the park was spent wheelbarrowing and spreading mulch around trees. Still though, it was a pretty easy job and relatively rewarding. By the end of May we would drive through and see the huge number of trees that we had mulched, and that was a pretty good feeling.

While most of our time was spent mulching, every once in a while we would get some variety to the mulch life, and work with Operation Bright Side at a number of different locations. My first day we went to Bellerive Park, and while it definitely involved some mulching, that was not the focus of our efforts. The event we were catering to that day was “Milkweed for Monarchs: The St. Louis Butterfly Project”. We started by unloading plants and placing them in their designated areas to later be planted by a group of local elementary school students. Once everything was set up, the kids showed up to plant. Some bureaucrats also showed up to get “candids” of their immense devotion to the community. While they were doing that, we were basically just mulching the areas that had already been planted. Around 12 ish we got our lunch break, and we were able to get in on some of the free Subway sandwiches that were available for the event. After lunch, and once everything was planted and mulched, the mayor held a press conference to explain his efforts at revitalizing the population of monarch butterflies, which was apparently an issue very dear to his heart. He shared a touching story about how when he was a kid, he used to see clouds of monarch butterflies. He explained how all he wishes is that the kids of today have the opportunity to see the same thing. By organizing this event in which a display of 40 or so plants would be set up, he made quite the impact towards the long term success of the Monarch butterflies. During the press conference, we were to set up gift bags for all those who attended. They had very specific requests with regards to the exact orientation and position of all of the goodies in each bag, and I think we pretty much nailed it. After the press conference, we had to clean up the event, which was actually a lot more work than would be anticipated. We were left to clean up a pretty large amount of chairs, tables and other miscellaneous objects, carry, and load them into a nearby building. By then, we were pretty short on numbers and since the cameras were gone we didn’t get much help from the bureaucrats, so it ended up being quite the chore. When it was all cleaned up, however, we were all given free t-shirts, so it was a pretty good day. Once I got home I realized I was mistakenly given two(!) free t-shirts instead of just one, so I guess it was even better day for me.

The rest of the days were mainly just mulching, however a few days worth of work at Forest Park went to cleaning up from a large tree that fell during a storm. This took a number of steps and days to actually accomplish. The first day was devoted to just picking up and loading smaller debris onto a truck to be taken and put into a chipper elsewhere. Next, our supervisor Brad cut the larger parts of the tree into pieces small enough to be moved by hand, which were then loaded onto a truck and put into a chipper. The rest of the tree that had fallen had to be moved by a bobcat, so we didn't really have to do much other than repositioning some of the bigger logs. After the cleanup, Brad cut the rest of the tree down and it was actually pretty cool to see the process that goes into cutting down trees of that size. Another bonus was that while he was cutting the tree down, a group of Billy Goat Chip Company sales people were wandering through for some event and gave us some free bags of chips.

The rest of our time, however, was spent mulching the seemingly endless supply of trees Forest Park had to offer. Generally what happened was that we would be put in an area with a large pile of mulch, and would load up wheelbarrows with mulch using pitchforks and shovels. Then we would take the wheelbarrows over to the nearest tree that needed mulch and dump it. Next we spread out the mulch around the base of the tree either by hand or with a rake. The only things you had to keep in mind while doing this were to keep the mulch off of the bark and to spread it out evenly and make it look aesthetically pleasing. This skill could be mastered after mulching 2 or 3 trees, so while incredibly easy, this wasn't the most exciting job in the world. There was some level of satisfaction as the pile slowly shrank in size, however soon our main supervisor Russ would be sure to pop back in to throw another load of mulch onto the pile.

The mulching process could be done relatively thoughtlessly and wasn't particularly stressful, however, so other than having to wake up at 7 every morning and struggle through early morning traffic, it was a pretty good gig overall. It did get to be more of a pain later in the day, however, considering the mulch pile stayed in the same place while the trees that needed to be mulched just got farther and farther away as the day progressed. So by the end of the day most of our time was spent walking wheelbarrows long distances to and from the mulch pile.

Our time spent mulching was not without progress, however. One day, when we were given three wheelbarrows and two people, we were forced to innovate to maximize efficiency. Sadly, when supervisor Brad saw us loading up for one of our double wheelbarrow excursions, we were forced to go back to the single wheelbarrow life. So I guess maybe it was without progress, but oh well. We tried I guess.

Later into the month of May, we did more work with Operation Bright Side, which was a nice change of pace. The rest of our work with Operation Bright Side took place at their actual facility, rather than Bellerive Park like it was the first day. A lot of what we did there was just beautification. We spent most of our time around the facility doing a mixture of weeding, sweeping, and setting up for events. Also mulching. (they at least used a different type though). Some people also got to work with a power washer, which was apparently pretty fun to use, although I sadly cannot speak from experience. While we were working outside of their facility one day, we also got a bit of a show when there was a fender bender just across the street from where we were working. I didn't get a chance to see the actual collision, as I was just on the other side of some bushes, however I got to hear about 10 seconds straight of honking from one of the drivers soon after the accident, followed by a very heated argument between the two. It was pretty entertaining. 

Despite the overall ease of the job, we still had a number of bumps in the road to finishing our May project.

May 17th was a tough day for us all, with the news that Front was taking away all of the hours that we were given on rain days. This set me back somewhere around 15 hours, however even now I’m not sure exactly how many it was considering we were kind of in the dark on the hours that were actually taken away. There were three days in which I thought it was my “last” day of work, only ending up having to go back and work more the next day. It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, and the uncertainty of it all was kind of a pain to deal with but it all worked out fine in the end. Assuming I’m actually done with my hours now, which I’m pretty sure I am. Hopefully?

Despite the mundaneness of the the job, I think it was still a pretty good experience overall. It’s good to know that we helped out with the park and the various projects we helped out with through Operation Bright side. Also, I think all of the time spent mulching changed me. Now, I feel at ease when I see a well mulched tree. On the other side of the token, however, I’ll never be able look at a tree with a bare base the same again.