Julen Sprackling and Kelly Flannery
After a weekend of sunshine, this week started off in the office as rain set in.
We started off the morning designing kiosk flyers, looking at and tacking social media trends, and digitizing files from the Halsey easement folder. The kiosk flyers we designed will provide directions to visitors on how to use Avenza Maps, a free offline map viewer, where you can find trail maps for some of our properties. I felt the design we laid out looked fantastic!
Afterward, we went over to the Watson-Symington property. This property is one of my favorites so far due to its large size and various features, such as the pond. We went to retrieve the trail camera we set up last week only to discover that the camera battery had died and did not take any pictures. Subsequently, we ate lunch and then spent the rest of the day searching through files in order to find appraisal values for our properties at the time it was gifted.
On Wednesday, it was time to do some outdoor work after a day in the office. We went over to the Hicks property and spread mulch over a pathway. Spreading mulch prevents weeds from taking over and to make the presence of the pathway more clear for visitors. Our outdoor activities make us put our teamwork skills to use as we tried to find the quickest and most effective way to complete the job. Additionally, we transplanted cedars into an open area that once had been overgrown with invasive species. It was very rewarding to know that every cedar we transplanted was helping to reestablish the native species population.
We finished the afternoon back in the office filing appraisal values for our properties. Tasks like this prioritize organization, which is important for a nonprofit organization. Future employees and interns of the NCLT will now have an easier time finding important documents.
On Thursday we were back in the office and we continued to file the appraisal and assessed values for our properties. Although it is a bit mundane, I believe this task is very helpful to gain experience. If any of us work in an office in the future, we can transfer our new organizational skills to the position. In the afternoon, we worked on producing Firefly Guided Walk handouts and writing the Flora and Fauna sections for the newsletters of July and August. Flora and Fauna is a recurring section in our monthly newsletter and is a great tool to educate community members on aspects of our ecosystem.
On Friday we attended our second Advertiser Coffee meeting at the New Canaan Historical Society. It was fascinating to learn about some of the issues and newly proposed ideas in Connecticut and our town. Afterward, we headed over to the Hicks property to take some pictures of the mulch trail and the cedar transplanting jobs we completed on Wednesday. We then went to the office to laminate and edit the kiosk flyers. Then, we went to place the flyers at the kiosk signs around our properties.
Overall, we had another successful week, where we completed many tasks of great benefit. I look forward to our first full week next week where we will have more time to further develop our skills and to complete more outdoor and office work!
Please keep in touch with the Land Trust by email ([email protected]) or at newcanaanlandtrust.org, and also on Facebook and Instagram (@NC_Land_Trust)! For specific questions regarding our summer programs, please contact Kelly Flannery at [email protected].
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