Mariton: Plodding Progress

by Tim Burris, Preserve Manager

Kevin and I are making progress opening trails after the storm.  Actually, we have done pretty well up to this point.  We are now to the worst sections (the Squeeze and Turnpike), knowing that it will take several days of work just to open one section of trail. 

There are three separate large concentrations of storm damage (and several small areas) at Mariton.  We were lucky that the trails were on the perimeters of two of those areas.  There was still a lot of tree cutting to clear trails around those areas.

However, the Squeeze and Turnpike Trails run right through the middle of one of the bigger blowdowns, and the going is slow.  Check out how small the tractor looks in the middle of this blow down area.  Sometimes there is just a large tree across the trail.  We can cut it on either side of the trail, roll it to one side and continue.

Then there are the areas where the tops of several trees land right in the trail.  Here the cutting is slow and methodical.  After cutting, the branches have to be dragged or heaved off the trail.  There is already a lot of brush in these areas which makes this job more laborious.  But we are making progress.