Installation!!!

The morning of the installation was so exciting! I loaded and tied the dock to the top of our car (with the help of my dad), with the brick anchors in the car and the rope coming out of the windows to keep them safe! Then we took the dock to our launching site at Lake Thoreau near the Lake Thoreau Pool. With the help of the Watershed Manager at the Reston Association I led my troop in paddling the dock out to our launching site. We first figured out exactly where we wanted it to go (see my post on location for how to do this) dropped one of the two bricks in then adjusted it, next we carefully slid the dock in and placed our second brick to fully anchor it!

Unloading the dock from my car

Carrying it to the barge

About to load it on the barge

Loading it onto the barge for paddling

paddling the dock to its final location

installing the dock!

making final adjustments

The dock is on the lake ready for turtles!!

The dock is now fully installed and ready for turtles and any other wildlife that will help the ecosystem! Let me know in the sightings forum if you see wildlife in and around Reston and at my Dock!

After the installation the other scouts left and with the RA watershed manager we filmed parts of the video at top of this post which highlight my project and how its helping the ecosystem.

Turtle fun fact of the day:

Unlike lots of cold blooded reptiles, most turtles have great vision and are largely attracted to bright colors.

For more information on what you can do check out the 'resources' section of this website, join the forum or contact me at mercerthomas10@gmail.com.