Report from the Sustainable Forestry Team

This summer is full of travel for the two Sustainable Forestry Crews out of SCC Four Corners. The crews are working in the Steamboat area, roughly a nine hour drive from Durango, CO. The bulk of the work has been hazard tree removal and cleanup. Big Creek Lake was the first stop on the list. Both SFT crews swept through the campground falling trees that had died from the Bark Beetle that has taken over in mass numbers. Standing from the work site, a person can see hundreds of acres of Lodge pole pines that have been killed by the beetles. It’s sad too look at, but it has its own beauty to it! All the trees felled were cut for firewood and split as well. Any of the smaller unusable wood, crew members got to chip with a rather large wood chipper the Forest Service provided and helped run. SCC Crews also did a bit of thinning in the camp ground. Years ago the area was clear cut and lots of small Lodge Pole Pines and Furs have grown in thick. It was the duty of the crews to go through and select the healthiest trees and make room for them to flourish.

Another major task that crews have undertaken is cleaning piles of down trees at trail heads in the area. Local Hot Shot teams came in this spring and brought down large dead trees that we endangering guests of the many trails. The work consisted of bucking the down trees and hauling the pieces to the road to be hauled off. Sounds easy enough, but the piles are huge. Picture 100ft back into the forest and several hundred feet along the road of whole trees felled one on top of the other. Its been great practice for crews to get the hang of how to tackle timber in crazy positions and how to cut it apart.

The work happening in Northern Colorado is a large undertaking. Its hard to look at all the trees killed by the Bark Beetle but SFT Crews their best to mitigate the situation with project sponsors.Its going to be a summer full of removing harzardous trees and making the National Forests in the area a safer place, as well as a multitude of other great works. 

Chuck Hollowhorn and Andrew Kelley – SFT Crew Leaders