Volunteers 'Green-Up' wash banks

Undaunted by Mother Nature, more than 150 valley residents joined staff from the Las Vegas Wash Project Team March 9, 2003, for the Las Vegas Wash Green-Up, planting approximately 1,000 shrubs and trees along the wash's banks.

A week after the originally scheduled event was postponed by rain, eager volunteers - including scores of Boy and Girl Scouts - planted the south bank of the wash immediately upstream from an erosion control structure. The effort was designed to help stabilize the wash's banks and thereby prevent erosion during storms.

"The erosion control structures we've installed have been very effective, but during flood events the water has a tendency to scour out the wash's banks," said Las Vegas Wash Green-Up project coordinator Keiba Crear. "These plants' root systems reinforce the soil and help reduce the damage."

During the past three years, volunteers have planted more than 15,000 trees and shrubs in several areas adjacent to the waterway. In total, the wash project team has enhanced 42 acres near the wash with native vegetation.

The Las Vegas Wash Green-Up is only one project in an ongoing program overseen by the LVWCC to protect and enhance the Las Vegas Wash. In addition to organizing volunteer plantings and building the dam-like structures, the coordination committee and its member agencies are armoring the wash's banks with boulders, removing invasive plants and conducting extensive wildlife studies.