This Tuesday, a Girl Scout troop from San Diego, gathered under the cloudy skies in Crowley Lakes, ready to make a difference. The troop was visiting Mammoth Lakes on their summer vacation, a reward after selling hundreds of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. As part of their vacation, they wanted to do a service project. As their co-leader Tracy Gastelo said, “We always try to give back wherever we visit.”
Four San Diego Girl Scouts with their bags of trash and tools
The morning’s service project was picking up trash at the Crowley Hilltop Preserve, a 33 acre preserve outside of Crowley Lakes. The Eastern Sierra Land Trust owns this property, and its purpose is to preserve it as open space for the Round Valley mule deer herd migration path. In two weeks, the ESLT will be celebrating this new piece of property.
Displaying the trash of the day, what a pile!
The girl scouts went to work, combing the meadow and sagebrush, finding old tin cans, tires, rusty buckets and other strange things. After two hours of intense work, we had quite a pile. After a snack of Serena’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, we set of for the hilltop, to see what we could see. And what a sight it was at the top! The storms of the morning were starting to clear, and the clouds stretched out in crazy formations. We all cheered and settled down to enjoy the view with the Indian Paintbrush and other blooming wildflowers.
The views from the hilltop looking north.
As we headed back, scampering down the hillside like mule deer, we stumbled on some blooming purple sage. We all took a break enjoying the fragrance of this beautiful bush. What a day. Thank you to the girl scouts and their leaders, we got things done!
Serena
Blooming purple sage in the Pinyon Juniper Woodlands of the Crowley Hilltop Preserve
