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McKinney Roughs

Margot Towmey

          McKinney Roughs was an amazing place to be able to explore and help out. We raked leaves, planted plants, and trimmed bushes. It was a lot of fun, and we learned how to take care of planet Earth.
          At the very beginning of the tour we watched a video of different areas of the place. It showed us the some of the beautiful land that McKinney Roughs is made of. When we went out there, the land was not the same. It was covered in leaves and had dead, overgrown plants covering up the ones that can survive the winter.
          The first thing we saw was a water cistern, which is a barrel that is placed right under a water gutter to conserve water. The water goes through a screen to filter out leaves, and then falls into the barrel. This conserves water because instead of paying to use hose-water, there is free rainwater being used.
          We broke up into four groups to work, having three to four people in each group. One group started with planting, one with trimming, and the other with raking. There was a beautiful bench area that was covered in muddy leaves, so we raked that up. There were still a couple leaves and some mud when we finished, but the little area being clean made the whole place look so much better.
          After, we switched to trimming. We clipped off dead branches from budding plants, making them look green instead of having that color be overpowered by the black. We took turns with the clippers, using the big ones for bigger plants, and the sharper ones for the little snips.
          Last we planted. The plants were pre-rooted in soil, but we had to dig holes for them, and take them out of the little black boxes that they came in. The LCRA lady showed us how to correctly remove the soil and put it back without wasting any of it.
          All in all, going to McKinney Roughs was a fun and educative experience that would be fun to go back to in the spring to see how much of a change we made, and how much our plants have grown.