Members of the AYLUS Roslyn Branch volunteered at Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center on Saturday April 26th 2025 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center provides a wide range of activities to do, education and research about the environment, and conservation.
We helped pluck weeds and other plants, build birdhouses, and clean up afterwards during our time there. Our first task at hand when arriving was to remove a certain type of native weed due to how fast it can spread and remove other plants that don’t belong there. Removing these weeds was easy enough as just pulling hard enough could usually pull out most of the plant along with its roots out of the ground. The problem was that the weed had spread so much we simply couldn’t remove all of them during our time there. After that we began to make birdhouses that were later on connected with one another and used. Creating the birdhouses were somewhat difficult because nailing the pieces of wood with one another was challenging even though the design was very simple. Sometimes the pieces of wood would shift and we would have to start again to make sure the birdhouse was even on all sides. Lastly we saw some animals in the Sanctuary such as a groundhog, turtles, and a snake. While seeing these animals we took small breaks and were allowed coffee. Once the break was over we went to help put away tools that had been used early on.
From this experience we learned the importance of the environment, and the plants and animals around us and how they can affect one another if something were to happen. This experience was truly wonderful learning about the environment.
Members who participated: Jasmine Lin (4 hours), Miles Hu (4 hours), Emma Wei (4 hours), Kayden Cheng (4 hours)
Reporter: Kayden Cheng
