Show conservation notes by W earl I 1 for some time now the sixth grado grade at the Esc Ee calante alanto elementary school under leadership of E adson adson alvey has been studying soil boll conservation because of the popularity of the soil conservation movement nationally and locally the students became interested te in this subject and were anxious to apply on the ground a conservation james M gatherum soil conservation service work unit con sorva tio a tat assigned to the escalante river alver soil conservation district was contacted to assist in working out a project lor for the students to initiate and follow mr alt gatherum contacted one of the district cooperators ruty rufy liston and asked if the school could make an erosion control project out of the deep yash wash cutting through his farm mr I 1 liston allston accepted tb the 0 offer an and d stated trtat every gephar hole led to the wash which was ata draining in oft off valuable irrigation water and soil and that the wash was gradually slowly creeping f urther further up into his field with each passing year mr liston however too sure that the students could do anything with the gully gally but the sixth grade students accepted the challenge and started the first erosion control project of this nature in the valley A short time ago the group met at the liston listen farm and a demonstration on tree planting ing wits was given before they swung into action some of the ing ing points of the demonstration follow 1 when planting keep jhb th 0 tree roots in water until the hole Is IB dug and remove remote only one tree from the bucket at a time 2 dig holes large enough so that the roots will not bo be crowded or doubled back the hole should be deep enough to allow the tree to set natura naturally I 1 ly about one halt half inch lower than it was at the nursery 3 fill the hole one halt half full with moist top soil and firm around the roots fill the remainder of 0 the hole and tamp trash such ouch as straw and sticks will cause the roots to dry out the students were then divided into teams of three one a shovel man another a planter and the other a water man with three teams on each side of the wash the group set to work and soon had russian olive trees planted every student was interested and Is now ready to follow the tree plantings with small check dams at the conclusion of the tree planting a sign sixth grade erosion control project was posted at the head of the wash and a picture taken of the group the group plans to have pictures taken annually to show the progress being made and to have a mating lasting visual picture of the good accomplished from the project it Is yet difficult to estimate the total value of the work done thus far but the young folks were taught the correct way to plant a tree and the part they play in soil movement |