Dropping Trees

Part Two of our tree planting event this weekend.
  

 I realized it seems counterproductive to be cutting down trees when we just spent a weekend planting 500 of them.  There are two very good reasons for yesterday's effort; Park maintenance and forest management.

Let me explain.

We'll start with Park maintenance.  There are two parts to the maintenance aspect.  We pulled down trees in key areas.  If you are hiking the Park, you will notice that they are actually blocking the paths that used to run along I-90.  However, that is the location of our new evergreens, and we are trying to buy them some time to establish themselves and grow without people inadvertently stepping on them or harming them.  Dropping trees is a  natural way to form a protective barrier for the newbies to the Park.  Plus, the downed trees form a nice wildlife habitat for ground-level animals.

The second part of the maintenance is the deterrent aspect yet again.  We do have a no-motorized vehicle policy at the Park.  We know patrons aim not to destroy, but enjoy.

 However, once in a while we get a rogue visitor.

We believe our Park visitors enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of the Park, and all that it entails.  Headwaters is not the site for dirtbikes, ATVs, or similar vehicles, but there are numerous locations within Erie County that are available.  There is room in Erie for everyone's recreation, but not necessarily in the same space.







So we hope that some well-placed trees will help us deter motorized visitors.








The forest management part of the tree-felling is also interesting and multifaceted.  Thankfully, we had our state forester heading up this part of the project.  Not only did he demonstrate proper protocol for taking trees down, but he suggested which trees would be best and why.  Each tree that is now down was thought out before action was taken.

Note the proper gear

The wedges (orange) were cool to see in action - they helped guide the tree to fall in an intended direction.

The trees we chose to take down were either dead already, or white ash trees.  The dead trees were considered because, well, they are already dead.  But also as a safety precaution.  If they looked to be a near-future hazard for the trails or patrons, it was a good idea to take them down before they came down on their own in an unmanaged situation.

Notice we also took down white ash.

In our area of the country, there are two concerns for the ash:  ash decline and the emerald ash borer.  In these cases, our forester chose the ash tree to take down before others, as they will succumb to either the decline or the insect in the next few years.  In this way, we are managing our forest looking into the future health of the overall Park, rather than a short term fix for the moment.

Hikers will also notice that some of the fallen trees are on the ground, and some are at varying heights due to branches, etc.  We intended to leave them in that way to, again, deter vehicles from simply riding right over them.  I like this photo because I caught the tree in mid-fall :)

This summer we are intending to create a new east-west trail to reconnect the trails lost by our tree planting.  If you have any questions regarding our projects, trails, or plans, please feel free to call the office and our staff will be happy to talk with you about our plans for the Park.  Enjoy spring hiking!