On March 23, AYLUS Oakland Gardens completed their 141 event. AYLUS Oakland Gardens again worked with the Stewardship Team to mulch the trees in Alley Pond Park Forest Restoration. The day started a bit cold and windy but slowly got warmer as it went on. AYLUS Oakland Gardens and the Stewardship Team started the event at 8:45 a.m. and ended around 12:15 p.m.
During the event, Rebecca Gonzalez, Liz Kim, Max Liu, Kira Olivencia, Glen Munshower, and Ed Lee from the Stewarship Team came to facilitate the event. They taught AYLUS Oakland Gardens members how to mulch the trees and the reasons for mulching the trees. The mulch that the Stewardship Team provided was made from ground-up wood chips. The wood used for the wood chips is from fallen branches around the city. Also, the reason the wood chips are used as mulch is because they retain moisture and are biodegradable. The mulch helps keep the soil wet when there is a drought and prevents weeds from growing. We are mulching the trees because we want to make sure that the saplings grow big and strong. The goal of Alley Pond Park Forest Restoration is to one day create a park for citizens to enjoy their morning runs and enjoy the nature around them.
When AYLUS Oakland Gardens started the mulch the trees, they were split up into two groups. This is due to AYLUS Oakland Gardens having too many volunteers working on one mulch pile. The Stewardship Team provided the AYLUS members with rakes, wheelbarrows, and IKEA bags. The Stewardship Team showed the members how to mulch the trees. They wanted us to build a ring of mulch around the tree because if there is too mulch on the tree, the tree will rot. This is due to the high moisture content in the mulch. After the AYLUS members were told what to do. The members automatically split into groups that were going to fill the IKEA bags with much and the other mulchin the trees. The members worked efficiently to make sure that the trees got the right amount of mulch. The mulching group also worked with more than one person to be more efficient, and it made it easier to carry the IKEA bags full of mulch. Towards the end of the event, the members used about 4 mulch. This shows the amount of teamwork that was required to complete the event. When more trees are mulched, it means there would be more trees surviving till the next year. The members also mulched different types of trees like Birch, Maple, Oak, Hackberry, Sumak, and Pine. This shows how diverse Ally Pond Park will be once the Trees grow big and strong.
Lastly, we would like to thank Rebecca Gonzalez, Liz Kim, Max Liu, Kira Olivencia, Glen Munshower, and Ed Lee from the Stewarship Team for coming and allowing the AYLUS Oakland Gardens Branch to contribute to the park restoration. Also, thank you for the gifts, Stewardship Team. Thank you to all the volunteers who came to the event and contributed to the park restoration.
Our Volunteers:
1. Vicki Lin: 3.5 hours
2. Austin Yuel : 3.5 hours
3. Patrick Yeung: 3.5 hours
4. Matthew Lin : 3.5 hours
5. Yuan Gu : 3.5 hours
6. Benny Yeung: 3.5 hours
7. Alexander Lu: 3.5 hours
8. Nerissa Xu : 3.5 hours
9. Justin Cheong : 3.5 hours
10. Ella Tai : 3.5 hours
11. Sophia Lu : 3.5 hours
12. Henry Liu : 3.5 hours
13. Zhuoning Li : 3.5 hours
14. Austin Li : 3.5 hours
15. Karis Lau : 3.5 hours
16. Yiming Chen: 3.5 hours
17. Kaisa Wu : 3.5 hours
18. Tianxiang Ding: 3.5 hours
19. Shirley Chiu : 3.5 hours
20. Paxton Xu : 3.5 hours
21. Albert Tang : 3.5 hours
22. Anson Gao : 3.5 hours
23. Jerry Shan : 3.5 hours
24. Steven Zhu : 3.5 hours
25. Hongyu Wei : 3.5 hours
26. Ricky Song: 3.5 hours
27. Ian Lee : 3.5 hours
28. Elina Lee : 3.5 hours
29. Ryan Wu : 3.5 hours
30. Tiffany Nhu : 3.5 hours
31. Jayden Chen : 3.5 hours
32. Aaron Shi : 3.5 hours
33. Aidan Zheng : 3.5 hours
34. Shihao Li : 3.5 hours
35. Derrick Gao : 3.5 hours
36. Sophia Gao : 3.5 hours
37. Yuyan Fan : 3.5 hours
38. Vincent He : 3.5 hours
Parent Adviser Team:
Cui Fang Li (Fannie): 4 hours
Teng Fei Liu (Faye): 4 hours
Hsinhui Liao (Karen): 4 hours
Report written by: Vicki Lin
Reviewed by: Jia Qi (Angela) Liu
