Happy Earth Day!

Ok, I guess I'll take a stab at this whole "blogging" thing.

A few Saturdays ago was Earth Day, and what better way to celebrate than to re-plant the riparian area along the Jordan River. So that's what Tasha and I did (with our friends Timothy & Shantell and their baby Michael).

This guy is Vaughn Lovejoy. He's the head of Tree Utah and he is everything you would expect the head of Tree Utah to be. He lives at Wasatch Community Housing, grows his own food, calls rain "the business end of the hydrologic cycle," and, well, plants trees 20 to 30 hours a week. He is one of the funniest men I have ever met.

This is Timothy Kaspar. He is Swiss. He is banker. Timothy is a Swiss Banker (for reals). He has a baby. He plants trees with one hand and shades his baby with the other hand. Timothy is a hard worker.

He and his wife showed up late, so I was telling him how we were planting; about 3 feet apart with with no pattern. "Oh," says Timothy "just like planting land mines." um. . . I suppose. 'Cus like all Swiss, he was in the Swiss Army.

Tasha got right to work. But she decided to dig for treasure.

She stopped digging once she found this ominous sign.

This is the finished product. You can't really tell, but in the center of those black tarps there is a seedling. Since the beginning of spring we (well, Tree Utah and all of the volunteers) have panted 5,000 native shrubs along the Jordan River.

Next year, when the shrubs have grown up some, we will start planting actual trees. Then, in a bunch of years we will start seeing these guys (and the rest of the 100 plus species that used to migrate through Utah) resting here on their way from Canada to Ecuador.

Clockwise from top left there is a Chestnut-sided Warbler, a Rufous-crowned Warbler, a Wilson's Warbler, and a Golden-winged Warbler. All of these little guys fit in the palm of your hand.

So there's your ecology lesson for the day. Here's to trees, warblers, and bio-diversity.