Every Orientation Week
we had one of the local retired Forest Rangers, George, come up to show the
staffers where the different hiking trails were and to identify the different
plants and trees. He hated Smokey
the Bear. He said the reason we have these horrendous forest fires is
because we prevent the little fires that burned the under brush from growing so
thick. He told us that the Indians knew how to manage small brush
fires and keep the forest safe.
George
was also our tree climbing person. Once a week at Logging Camp he would
climb a tree and top it off. We
had climbing gear for the campers and we would let them volunteer to put the
climbing gear on and go up the tree. They loved it! George would also
fall a dead tree each week. It was
amazing! We had the campers backed
away from behind the tree. George would start hammering a wedge
into the backside of the tree. George
would finish off with a hammer and the tree would fall. The campers were like magnets being drawn to
metal. The second the tree fell
the campers would rush to the fallen tree and touch it. We would then show them how many rings there
were in the cut tree to determine how old it was. We would let campers
take a turn at the two-man saw cutting the tree into pieces.
One
time when George was going to cut down a tree, he hammered in his wedges to
direct where the tree should fall. The campers with their
counselors were behind him and the tree.
All of a sudden he yelled to the Coordinator to get the campers away. The tree was swaying the wrong way. It looked like it was going to fall backwards
where the campers were standing. He was
able to stall the tree from falling and everyone was o.k. He said
afterward that the tree was rotting from inside out and his wedge would not
hold the direction of the fall. Scarry!
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