LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Over a hundred volunteers turned out to transform an area of the Las Vegas Wash Saturday morning.
The event, dubbed the "Green Up," takes place on a yearly basis, and dozens of plants get planted into the soil by hand to help protect the riparian area. This time, the zone of re-vegation was in Henderson off of Gibson Road.
"Volunteers will come out, they'll get some gloves, a trowel and [they'll] go out to the site," explained environmental biologist Tim Ricks, who works for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
"Lots of people in Las Vegas, don't even know that this place exists. So they come out here and they kind of realize that we have this great resource both for recreation and wildlife, and it connects them, gives them a little bit of stewardship as they plant these plants," Ricks said.
The Las Vegas Wash is the local system of channels that carries excess water from our valley back to Lake Mead. Threats of erosion instigated a series of repairs to the surrounding ecosystem years ago by the Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee, which the Southern Nevada Water Authority is the lead agency on. Now, events like this help maintain that work to stabilize the Wash. Once the plants grow to full size, they provide critical habitat to wildlife and the root systems prevent the waterway from degrading.
"I just knew this wash area was really important to preserve and protect from erosion," volunteer Susan Ritter told Channel 13.
"It just gives me goosebumps to see plants that we planted and people getting more involved and realizing that this is such a critical element to our environments, especially in Vegas," echoed volunteer Linda Hinze.
