Key Club students plant trees at Deukmejian Wilderness Park

I woke up at 7 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21, regretting having agreed to join Key Club members in volunteering at Deukmejian Wilderness Park. It was too early and too cold for me to even think about stepping outside, let alone planting trees. Nevertheless, I mustered whatever strength I had in me and braved that freezing Saturday morning, mostly because I had made a commitment to the others.

It was the first time this school year that Clark’s Key Club had arranged to volunteer at Deukmejian and join others in the community to help out. On the third Saturday of every month, a group of approximately 15 adults heads to Deukmejian at 8 a.m. to plant and water trees and create and maintain trails.The volunteers also remove invasive species from the park, normally staying until noon to complete their work.

The coordinator of these monthly volunteering events is Senior Administrative Analyst Marc Stirdivant, who works in Glendale’s Community Services and Parks Department and has been helping to run the program since July 2012. While the department Stirdivant works in helps to coordinate volunteers, all programs are sponsored by the Glendale Parks and Open Space Foundation.

The work day I experienced is part of the Trails and Open Space program, which the foundation also sponsors. The program organizes work days throughout each month, targeting a distinct part of the city each time. While some volunteers work at Deukmejian on the third Saturday of every month, others spend the second Saturday of each month working on the Riverwalk, where they remove weeds and non-native plants.

Stirdivant said that the program, which originated in 2010, was created because of the Station Fire that occurred in August of 2009. The fire burned almost the entire park and destroyed nearly everything in its way. When officials first began to investigate the damage following the fire in the first week of September, they decided to close the park for nine months.

“Everything was grey and white,” Stirdivant said. “It was like walking on the moon. There was not a leaf in sight.” Once the park finally reopened, Glendale residents reached out to the Community Services and Parks Department and volunteered to help restore the park. Soon, volunteers began to remove non-native plants, plant and water trees, and create and maintain trails.

I was happy to find that Deukmejian was not too far away from my house. As it turns out, the park is no more than a five minute drive away from Clark. I arrived there at 7:50 a.m. and waited for seniors Alina Avetisyan, Matthew Davidian and Anais Panossian to join me.

The four of us met in the parking lot and walked towards the park’s entrance together. After a brief presentation in which more experienced volunteers taught us what we were supposed to do and how we were to handle the seedlings, we took a short hike and began to work.

We were given shovels and pickaxes, neither of which I have ever used in my life, and told to dig a hole about one and a half feet deep and six to twelve inches wide. Davidian was quick to seize the pickaxe and began to loosen the dirt.

We quickly found that there were many rocks dispersed in the soil, which made it much more difficult to dig through. Fortunately, Avetisyan, Panossian and I swiftly learned how to use the pickaxe and were happy to find that the tool resolved the problem we were having when digging the soil full of rocks. We began to shovel and took turns, which kept us from tiring.

Finally, we had a hole that satisfied the requirements we were given. We then picked up a Big Cone Spruce tree seedling and gently placed it into the hole we had dug. As I held the seedling in place, Avetisyan and Davidian piled the dirt we had dug out back into the hole. Panossian then pressed the soil down, to ensure that the seedling would be firmly held into place.

Next, the four of us placed a metallic circular fence around the seedling to protect it from predators. We also attached a piece of rebar to the fence and pushed one end of it into the soil to keep it in place and prevent it from flying away. We also found rocks approximately four to six inches wide and used them to surround the fence. These rocks were meant mainly to keep animals such as rabbits from sneaking into the fence through openings in the bottom.

We took a moment to step back and admire the product of two hours’ hard work. A volunteer nearby then mentioned to us that we should water our tree, as newly planted trees need at least four gallons of water. This surprised me, as I had no idea that such a large amount of water was necessary to keep the tree healthy.

After watering, we were told that we could name our tree. After pitching a few ideas back and forth, we decided on “Leon the Great.” “Naming the tree after all the effort we put into planting it was my favorite part,” Davidian said.

We were also given the option of adopting our tree, but we decided not to, as we would not be able to go back and take care of the tree as often as is necessary.

This experience gave us four high school students an excuse to leave our cell phones, computers, and televisions and spend some time outside, something that we have not been able to do in a long time. Stirdivant said he was in agreement. “I like going out, because most of the time I am sitting at my desk,” he said. “I like going into the great outdoors in the nice weather. It is a relaxing environment to be in, and the work itself is incredibly rewarding.”

Overall, my friends and I had a cheerful and educational experience at Deukmejian. “I really enjoyed working with my friends in Key Club and helping out in the community,” Avetisyan said. I was also extremely thankful that I had forced myself to leave the house that morning, despite my hesitations. The four of us shared silly jokes and laughed about old memories. We all greatly enjoyed the morning we spent together. “Just being with friends and creating new memories in our last year together made the whole experience worth it,” Panossian said.