Waking up this morning was easier than I thought. I woke up ten minutes before my 7:15 alarm went off to eleven other bald eagles in a deep patriotic slumber. Right at 7:15, Tanner's alarm goes off with the song "Time" by Cute is What We Aim For and everyone popped up because terrible music has to be recognized. There was a split second of time where I realized that I might very well be extremely tired today. Luckily, I was the first one to jump out of bed and be fully clothed and ready for the day...in about a five minute time frame. I was completely done with a lunch sack titled, "Eat Me...I'm your lunch" and ready to go.
Our angelic contact, Maelly, met us at the pearly white gates of the *whisper* "Shepard of the Hills" Lutheran church. Our gang piled into the red van (not the black...okay, well half of us did) and we were on our way to Bellvue/Watson fish hatcheries. Wielding my camera, we stopped at the Watson fish hatchery to meet up with Jesse to get an overview on our service project for the day. I filmed a lot of great shots with the different stages of trouts life contained in separate jars. Then, we were toured around the facility to see the hatchery in work. Eventually, we decided on splitting up to take on both Bellvue and Watson because having twelve bald eagles in one location is simply outrageous (when the video comes out it will show a great example that twelve college students shopping for groceries is an organic pedestrian traffic hazard).
Anyway, the work that was screaming my name was stationed at the Watson hatchery. Why? Oh, no reason...just the fact that I was able to wear overalled waders for my job. So, the Bellvue (black van noobs) were on their way to work while the rest of us suited up. Terry graciously showed us the ropes of cleaning out a raceway. (A raceway is an outside trench filled with fish.) I watched Tanner jump into the raceway and followed shortly after. Grabbing our nets we began to start scooping the moss and algae out of the raceway and onto the gravel above us. It was funny watching Sam, Anna, Erin and Lauren slowly but surely fall in with us. We were all skeptical about what we were actually jumping into since the water became black as soon as we started splashing around. The work was therapeutic because being in good company and helping people out really builds character.
Manual labor gives back as much as we put into it. We all worked really hard and it showed. The raceway water was clear by the time we finished. It made question if it was even drinkable. Luckily, no one in my group would let me do such a silly thing. By lunch time, I was starving. I remember my left hand shaking while I was trying to get a sip of OJ to wash the PB&J down. After lunch I joined up with the Bellvue team to shoot footage of their site. I was, indeed, the sacrificial lamb of the red van tribe because I had to ride in the hi-tech black Town & Country. I contracted a few diseases on the way over (even though it was a short ride) but it was like riding into a foreign country that your immune system is not used to.
Honestly, I had been on the fence about the debate over which site was more difficult in manual labor. I would argue that the netting that occurred at the Watson hatchery was extremely tiring, however, the stench coming from Bellvue's site was unbearable. The task at Bellvue was to clear the bottom of the pond of fish fecal matter. Bellvue has two ponds next to each other. One stays full while the other is empty. Imagine a winter wonderland on Christmas. Now imagine that it's the afternoon and you're already tired of Santa's lame gifts so the next logical thing to do is go out and enjoy what's left of the Christmas snow. So, you're all happy putting on your snow boots and putting on your favorite mittens, then you take the first step. Sure, it's great, all perfectly white and you are the first one to leave a mark in the snow. All of the sudden the snow starts to sink in and your collapses around you as you realize what you're standing in: a giant landfill of fish poop. Take that imagery and place it in my head. I have my $900 camera and I'm walking in almost falling on the slippery tarp that is the bottom of the pond. The Bellvue group is showing the camera all the interesting things they did with the poop. For instance, Dylan's fort of poop he was making up on the hill from the plentiful mounds of poop Katherine and Julie were shoveling into buckets for his defense against cleanliness. Savannah, Kaitlyn and Karin took to sweeping the clouds of poop towards the mounds to clean the water.
After five minutes of being there the smell made the OJ, PB&J and Sun Chip combo want to come up and be apart of the fun. So, I put away my camera and picked up a broom! Again, the task seemed daunting at first, but at the end it was cool to see it pretty much clean. I would not say it was very therapeutic but I would say it built character. Joking aside, I truly believe the team did a lot of good things today. It's nice to check things off a list of tasks the workers now won't have to worry about. Removing tedious daily (to us, but maybe weekly to them) challenges makes it easier for the Colorado State Wildfire and Fishing team to focus on the real objectives. Forest fires. Oddly enough, forest fires, especially the major one last summer, really effects the fish. Yes, trees are on land but the sediment and soot from the smoke or fire can cause major damage to the hatcheries, bodies of water and the fish. It halted production, distribution and the life of fish. Being informed is important but knowing that we are helping people and wildlife that are effected daily, monthly, yearly is eye-opening.
I want to talk more, especially about the car ride afterwards, but I probably should end soon. Basically, the red van is now known for "Zach being a psycho" or something. Who knows, I'm the only sane one on this trip anyway. I still cannot get over how knit-tight this group is. I love it. It's tight.
Zachary Carter (Ya boi, Sosa)
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