Tuesday, July 31, 2007

teenage caveman


Man, the pace is fast, the body is tired.

This week, we've a number of notable things going on:

1. Jose Velasco came back from California, so he's back with us, part-time and temporary-like, until we grow enough to add a more regular position.

2. Starting yesterday, we're running a total of 7 crew members - a crew of 3 and a crew of 4. That's exciting because it means that more folk are working/getting paid/getting trained, and because it's a glimpse of one of our key goals: self-sufficiency...

See, if we can get to a 7 person crew, and charge $40/worker/hour for their services, the Nursery will be a self-sufficient operation. Earned income from services will pay for all of the Nursery's direct, fixed and variable costs, a great position for any business, but especially a social enterprise.

Here's one of the projects we're working on, a new housing development impacting wetlands and a creek. Local ordinance requires wetland enhancement through removal of invasive plant species (e.g., himalayan blackberry), with great care taken not to remove/cut existing native plants like snowberry, salmonberry, sword ferns, &c. Where mature natives are removed/cut, the developer has to replace each removed native with two new natives, so preservation is key and its alternative is costly.

This is hard, slow work, and requires a crew with the ability to distinguish between native plants and invasives, a skill set we've been working on since the Nursery's inception. The picture at the top, and this one below, give you an idea of what the project looks like at the start...
ok, back to the cave...

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