Blog Post

stewardship

Kate Melhuish '04 • Mar 05, 2020

stewardship 
NOUN
the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as … property.  
"responsible stewardship of our public lands" · 

Over the last 12 years, the Living Shoreline on both the east and west sides of the Hermitage property have undergone extensive restoration, much of it with help from volunteers including Norfolk Master Gardeners. A concept that MG Water Stewards have taken to heart is that true stewardship requires both monitoring and maintenance of our wetlands, shorelines, and waterways. In that spirit, several of our Water Stewards turned out at the Hermitage for the first of monthly planned shoreline cleanups with Phil Riske, Curator of Gardens + Grounds.  

On a sunny Monday in early March, our job was to collect storm debris and so help maintain the health of that shoreline. We were joined by Phil's assistant, Kayla Hanse, who studies horticulture at TCC, and two of his regular garden volunteers, Scott and Michelle. In under three hours, we were able to traverse the entire Hermitage shoreline and collected bags of plastic bottles, straws and other trash, along with piles of salt-treated lumber. All that material was loaded onto Phil's golf cart trailer and deposited outside the Hermitage gates for collection by the city.

Phil was especially glad to have Drew Avery on site. If you know Drew, from the Class of '19, you know he's not happy unless his feet are in the water. Drew donned his waders early on and worked twice as hard as the rest of us. We did have Chuck Gibson, Kate Melhuish, Debora Mosher, Bea Hovey, and Will Redfern who all squelched through their share of mud – and came out with the same number of shoes as going in.  
Happy that the heavy lifting is over for today: Chuck, Kate, Phil Riske and Kayla Hanse of the Hermitage staff with Bea peeking out between them, Will, Drew, along with community volunteers Scott and Michelle. Debora ducked out a few minutes early!
Watch the calendar for details about future dates – this is low-tide work, even if you wear Wellies.
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