News : NCCC Serving in Berthold, North Dakota

From Vinton, AmeriCorps Oak members travel to many areas to serve.

Oak 7 is working at the Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuge in Berthold, N.D. The team is helping remove the invasive species wormwood, leafy spurge, and Canadian thistle. They are spraying the unwanted plants with pesticide and removing old growth. "I feel like a scientist learning about the different plants and mixing all the pesticides necessary to kill them," said Laura Chechette, of Longmeadow, Mass. While half the team stays on the refuge the other half is working with additional co-sponsors including the Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot, N.D. There the team is working for two weeks helping to beautify the zoo for its' upcoming inspection. Tasks include painting fences, creating paper mache piñatas for the animals and other general cleaning. "Working with so many sponsors can be difficult, but everyone here is wicked nice and they want to make sure we are having fun while working," said Kara Hartnett, of South Kingstown, R.I. Another co-sponsor is the Pioneer Village in Kenmare, N.D. where Corps Members are spending two weeks helping to identify and label artifacts, refurbish older buildings and complete landscaping duties. The last co-sponsor is the city of Carpio, where the team will be spending a week removing fallen trees and tree limbs from the river bank to prevent flooding in the future.