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Washington Evening Journal
111 North Marion Avenue
Washington, IA 52353
319-653-2191
Friends of Geode workday held on Earth Day
Looking back in the email records, Friends of Geode member, Tyler Stigge has been trying to organize and hold a workday since early March. The weather has not cooperated at all. Tyler is the leader of the firewood and campground beautification projects. He works closely with the park rangers and the DNR to make sure the Friends efforts are in line with the Park’s needs. Finally plans came together and in spite of the spitting snow, a great group of volunteers gathered at the campground to work on the large pile of logs gathered for firewood. These logs came from clearing projects led by park director, Ulf Koenig. It is important to keep fallen trees and debris cleared for safety reasons. It is also necessary to leave some fallen trees for wildlife purposes so DNR help and direction is essential.
Providing split firewood for campers at the campground and the beach is both a service and a fund-raising project for Friends of Geode. The beach will be closed this year while the parking lot is torn up and redone but there are already campers renting space at the campground. Firewood will be a welcome addition to their fun. It is imperative the transporting of firewood from site to site be stopped. The unwelcome spread of the Emerald Ash Borer is a good example of human help in spreading invasive species.
Tyler and the Friends of Geode are grateful and a huge thank you goes to all the volunteers who not only contributed their time and muscles but their equipment as well. Stew’s lawn service brought his firewood processor, John Fullenkamp for his wood splitter. Mark Wesley his tractor. Mike Fortin his skid loader, grapple, splitter, tractor, and dump trailer. Logs needed to be cut into firewood length pieces first. The volunteers with chain saws did this work as well as working with the many smaller and odd shaped pieces to be processed.
The day was very successful. Volunteers took a short break for lunch. Doris Dickey brought a light lunch for the volunteers. Nine loads of firewood were processed. The campground shed was filled to capacity and a large pile of firewood for future use was established. There is still a significant number of logs to process and another workday is planned. In spite of the sore backs and abundant use of icy hot when everyone arrived home, fun was had by all. Bill Fortin commended that he was “whooped” (but happy).
