Reported by John Shannon
After the March snowfall that brought down many trees and
limbs in central Virginia, I wondered how many trees had fallen or broken along
the Appalachian Trail, so with Skyline Drive open, I decided to do my third
post-storm inspection with light clearing trip in the last 12 months. Pete Fink
generously ferried me from Rockfish to McCormick Gap.
Pete’s prediction of little damage on this section of
trail proved correct. I found a few small branches, then a broken treetop
hanging over the trail with a dead tree leaning against it. I cut some small
branches off to tidy the area and make it easier to walk through. Until the
large branches fall to ground, we cannot remove them from the trail. The other
tree on the trail was one I started cutting last fall. As expected, after
completing the cut, I could not move the tree off the trail.
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| The only major damage from March snow but too complex for volunteers to clear |
I spent some time what some might call manicuring the
trail by removing little branches that will soon grow into the trail. Closer to
McCormick Gap, to improve the appearance of the trail, I cut some small branches
on some of the trees which which we removed from the trail after last summer’s derecho. The standard trail
maintainer’s Christmas present of large loppers helped with this task.
Seeing all the fallen trees that had been previously
cleared by Don Davis and Andy Willgruber after the derecho makes one appreciate
just how much work the two chainsaw experts did.
I also noted some areas where treadwork is desirable to
slow future erosion—work that needs dryer weather and a McLeod to accomplish.
Lastly, in preparation for spring, I thinned garlic mustard and bittersweet in
a couple of spots.
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| Some of the many trees from the derecho |
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| The big one from 2012 Derecho. Cutting this gap took three trips |
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