A. Mountain Cleaning in Cheng-Kung Office Park
In the north of the Park is trenches area where grows native tree species, but now the trees are smothered by foreign plants, such as Railroad-creeper, Bitter Vine and Paper Flower.
12.14 1st Mountain Cleaning
Eliminating the Bitter Vine
Today our team members and I went to Cheng-Kung Office Park for eliminating the Bitter Vine. Bitter Vine is a foreign plant which can damage the indigenous chain. It can wrap the native plants, and smothers them. We listened to the guide and took some notes; also we got some rare fruits and seeds. We can use these materials for DIY works. For instance, we can cut off Bitter Vine's flowers and leaves, and then use the rest part to make a Christmas wreath after it's dried.
Everyone got to work! A poor Blush Macaranga was covered by Bitter Vine. You couldn't even tell it is a tree!
Teacher Xue was explaining how damage can Bitter Vine make while all of us can't wait to begin!
Time to save the plants! "1, 2, 3, everyone pull, let's save the Blush Macaranga!"
Look! The tree showed up! We made it. The teacher said that the Bitter Vine can't be thrown away without any management. The seeds will spread via wind, so we need to burn it down.
01.29 2nd Mountain Cleaning
(a)We were removing the foreign plants and cleaning the environment.
Ready to work with gloves on!
Step1, Clean the artificial waste.
Step2, Teacher Ye taught us to differentiate between Bitter Vine and Railroad-creeper. Then we started to clean the foreign plants around the Happy Farm.
Step3, We picked up the artificial waste and removed the Bitter Vine. Finally, we gathered all the waste into 6 big plastic bags. That's a lot!
Who doesn't love the flowers and birds? Mountain cleaning makes the Park more charming! Look, these pictures are the views of grass ground.
(b)Waste Sorting and Analyzing
We sorted all the waste into two groups, nature waste and artificial waste. We can see much waste which doesn't belong to the Park, like bottles, cans and the most are plastic bags. Teacher Ye analysis the kinds of waste and record it after every mountain cleaning.
Today our leader is a big brother, who is a junior student, studying at National Chiao Tung Universersity, a school with recognition. He has been a teen volunteer for eight years since he was a grade 8 student. He lives in Changhua County; however, he has to study at Hsinchu County; therefore, he can't come back to help often, only when there are activities in the Park, or during summer and winter break. He was glad to see so many children are willing to help.
(c)Lunch Time with Happiness and joys
After an exhausting morning, we were already hungry. Teacher Ye prepared a lot of ingredients, so did us, we brought some vegetables. Then we cooked together. Yeah! We now could take our time to enjoy the lunch!
Some of us made a card for teacher Ye as a surprise.(He's touched.) Today we learned a lot, it all thanks to teacher Ye!
B. Environmental Service in Cheng-Kung Office Park
This morning, we attended guide tour and helped clean the Park. Two guides led us to move branches. We finished our job very quick. Then, the guides introduced us the outdoor tub, Orchid Tree, Butterfly Tree, and Hong Kong Orchid Tree. They gave us Sword Bean, Kumquat and Indian Gooseberry. After the guiding was over, we picked many pine nuts at Qiu-jun Pavilion.
1. We Cooperated in Moving the Branches
The senior volunteers cut the spare branches, to make the trees healthier. We moved the cut branches to the rear side of the building, in case of accidents. Let's get our gloves on, ready to work!
Working Log
2. Weed Removal in the Happy Farm.
We visited Happy Farm today, not the one in the game, it is real Happy Farm. We were going to solve the troubles for native plants. Some weeds and foreign plants were invading their living place, even trying to smother the plants on the farm till the victims dead. Our mission is killing all the weeds and foreign plants, let's move on!
We put our gloves on and bent forward like farmer to remove weeds. Ouch! my back was sore. I realized how hard to be a farmer. No wonder there is an old Chinese saying "shei zhi pan zhong sun, li li jie xin ku!" (Every grain of rice comes from farmer's hard working and diligent, yet people don't realize how tough the farmer's life is.)
Today we helped the native plants, set them free from being smothered, meanwhile, we learned some foreign plant species, and experienced how exhausted to be a farmer. The Happy Farm isn't big, yet it's a green land which makes Green Camp more fascinating and brings us joys and happiness.
C. Review
Zhou Ke-Hong
Today we helped remove the foreign plant species, such as Bitter Vine and White Popinac. Both of them are pretty. Some businessmen introduced them into Taiwan, thus, they spread like virus and kept growing. They can wrap native plants and absorb the nutrition. They are the disaster to the food chain. We can't completely remove all of them; even we clean the entire camping place. We just did our best as possible as we can. Additionally, we found artificial waste. These wastes can last forever without decay, on the other hand, leftover and waste from fruits and plants can be fertilizer to the nature provide nutrition to the plants.
People shouldn't produce any waste because nature provides us vast resources like sunshine, air and water, which are essential elements to human. We should appreciate the gift from the Earth, not hurt her. Otherwise, global warming will be getting more serious, the power of nature is overwhelming. Consequently, I decide to do environmental service from now on. I also urge that people need to act, to make our home land better, and recover the sick Earth.
Zhou Ting-Yu
Zhang Ya-Zhu
We did voluntary job in Cheng-Kung Office Park in the morning. Although there were a few people attended in the beginning, people got more and more lately. We eradicated Bitter Vine and Railroad-creeper where near Bugs' Grass Ground. Later on, we took a break in meeting room. Then, we picked up artificial waste and remove the harmful plants again on the Forest Trail. We walked for a while and picked a lot of waste. Wow! That's such a "harvest"!
Finally, we were back to where we started. Everyone was tired and hungry! Our lunch is hot pot and dumpling. I think what I did today is meaningful. I will attend any kind of activities like this if there are any.
Zheng Jia-Ying
This morning, we visited Green Camp to help the mountain cleaning. At first, we removed Bitter Vine, Railroad-creeper and artificial waste. Though the waste was not much, I was very angry because people threw their garbage everywhere. It may pollute the land. The job is tough for me, but when I thought about the lunch I could have after work, it 's totally worth!
Ding Yong-Chen
Li Yang-Jun
