June 09, 2006

Mellowing with Age

Today was a day well spent - working at the Alder Creek Children's Forest with a group of students and free-lance educators giving kids a chance to learn about how not to do forestry. There is a section of the property known as the beetle kill area that was due to be cut this past fall. As things would have it, a paying job overran its time and the faller was not available on schedule. So they 'hired' (all donated time) another faller who came in with a cat and really tore up the land. He left enough large holes that there was significant blow-down this winter, so more wood had to be taken out than originally planned. Good for teaching chain-saw, not as good for selective logging practice. But, this is student managed land and everything can be made into a practical learning experience.

The project today was to protect white oak sapling from deer and elk graze, by putting in plastic tubes and stakes. Cody, Jesse, Dave, and Daniel scalped the land to remove competition grasses and then staked a plastic wrapper down and covered the ground with newsprint. Not that many elk eat oak, in preference to other things, but it is good experience for our middle school students to go through to learn. The Wolf Creek Job Corps Crew showed up to introduce some folks to the forest - these guys were more prepared to work and made cedar stake 'on the fly'.

Rather than recap and summarize my history, as Ali's post implies, I am launching new chapters in the game of lenny's life. Just barely past 48, that means that at the ripe age of 96 dr. lenny will stop kicking. That leaves plenty of time for memoirs later. For now - let's keep learning and using what we learn. And - enjoying gorgeous weather days howdtside - check howdt these photos.





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