Welcome to the fourth blog post in a new series. Each month we want to share our stewardship efforts of the Whitefish Trail and our community's beautiful open lands. Stewardship means the responsible planning and management of resources. The management of the trail itself will be the focus throughout this series, but we will also discuss stewardship of the land beyond the trail.
August was a busy month out on the Whitefish Trail. Our trail crew got together to tackle two projects. First we met out at Smith Lake to pick up glass around the parking area and to control the invasive weeds near the lake. We pulled and bagged thistle, spotted knapweed, and burdock plants. Unfortunately, broken glass out there seems to be a recurring issue, which we are brainstorming solutions to. But for now, we were able to pick up around 2 gallons of glass and nails! For the second project, we met at Skyles and cleared out water drains on the connection trail up to Beaver Lakes area. Pictured below is Trail Coordinator Sarah clearing out a water drain and a dedicated volunteer holding the bucket of glass and nails.
Towards the end of the month, we had a hail and windstorm. Over 30 trees feel down across the trail which made for a chainsaw heavy end of August. The picture to the right shows a gnarly hangup on the Beaver Tail - the spur trail down to Beaver Lake. This situation made for one of the more interesting tree removals we've had on the Whitefish Trail. It took two people using ratchet straps and a chainsaw to safely deal with the tree.
One of our partners, the DNRC, helped us fill in a hole on the Whitefish Trail at Swift Creek. As you can see below in the before and after photos, a tree fell over next to the portion of the Whitefish Trail at Swift Creek that is on a forest management road. When the tree fell over, it's root wad pulled a significant amount of soil out next to the trail tread. The DNRC used an excavator to fill in the hole which supports the trail tread well. Thanks DNRC!
We still have Whitefish Trail Crew hats available! If you're interested in supporting ongoing efforts to maintain the Whitefish Trail, purchasing a hat is a great contribution!
Check out these Whitefish Trail Crew shirts! If you see someone wearing one around town, ask them about their experience volunteering out on the trail. If you want to earn one of your own, all you need to do is attend three volunteer events this year. Email whitefishtrail@whitefishlegacy.org for more info.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for September's Trail and Stewardship Update!
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