Volunteers and Rattlesnakes!
Martin provided a free bird of prey program for the Chrysalis group this week and their way of saying thank you was to volunteer their time and service for the Southwest Wildlife Foundation.
Now it?s our turn to thank the 21 volunteers from Chrysalis who spent 2 hours working hard to make the Cedar Canyon Nature Park a beautiful place for the rest of us to enjoy. After pulling all the weeds around our parking pad and trail head they pulled weeds around the restrooms and our campfire program area. They also spread more wood chips around our picnic benches, swept the sidewalk and bridge and moved several heavy pieces of sheetrock from our utility room behind the restrooms to a storage shed on the north side of the creek.
P.S.
We were excited that we had a new tenant in one of our rehab sheds today at the Cedar Canyon Nature Park. It was a beautiful three foot long great basin rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes are reasonably common here in southern Utah. In the process of getting our volunteers started on their service project Susan instructed them to be very careful and watch where you place your feet and hands as we do have the occasional rattlesnake on the park property.
Rattlesnakes are beautiful peaceful reptiles that help to control the rodent population and as long as they are not harassed or stepped on they are not a threat to humans. To our great surprise when Susan walked into one of the rehab sheds to pick up some tools, she found this beautiful creature sleeping in the corner which gave her a great opportunity to allow some of the volunteers to see a rattlesnake up close and personal (but not too close.)
For more information about rattlesnakes here are some great educational links: