Progress Reports from the Field

Round Top Cement Mill is located along the historic C&O Canal. The site is the runis of an old cement mill from the 1800's. Over recent years the mill has become overrun with Ailanthus Altissima (Tree of Heaven)and the integrety of the historic structure has been comprimised.

The East crew teamed up with the West crew, two YCC crews, and several maintance staff from the C&O Canal. The crews worked together to remove the Ailanthus and treat the stumps with herbicide. The trees were bucked and fed into a chipper.

During this project several C&O Canal visitors stopped to chat and see what the crews were to. They were all very impressed at the large collaborative effort to keep the integrety of these structures.

Thank you to all of the hard working crews who made this project possible!

The temperatures are continuing to rise. With a heat index around 105 degrees The Team has learned to embrace the benefits of early mornings. Everyone is becoming increasing comfortable with all aspects of FIREMON and the pace of completing plots has picked up, averaging 2 plots per day. To date the Athens team has completed 26 FIREMON plots in the following burn units: Big Baily, Middle Baily, and Pine Creek.

We are finding the forest in Athens to be quite peaceful. Coming across new species is also exciting as in the instance of ginseng (only to be picked in the fall with a permit) and Paw Paw trees, a native and important staple fruit of Ohio history.

Earning a much needed break, the corps members headed north to escape the heat and soak in the amazing scenery of Canada. A great time was had by all including a stop at Niagra falls, relaxing and canoeing at Algonquin Provincial Park, and for the some, a 200 foot bungee!! All members have returned safely and are currently participating in the FFT2 Red Card training and are becoming certified Wildland Firefighters!

The temperatures are continuing to rise. With a heat index around 105 degrees The Team has learned to embrace the benefits of early mornings. Everyone is becoming increasing comfortable with all aspects of FIREMON and the pace of completing plots has picked up, averaging 2 plots per day.

We are finding the forest in Ironton to be quite peaceful. Coming across new species is also exciting as in the instance of ginseng (only to be picked in the fall with a permit) and a giant Cucumber Magnolia tree, measured at approximately 135 ft tall.

Earning a much needed break, the corps members headed north to escape the heat and soak in the amazing scenery of Canada. A great time was had by all including a stop at Niagra Falls, relaxing and canoeing at Algonquin Provincial Park, and for the some, a 200 foot bungee!! All members have returned safely and are currently participating in the FFT2 Red Card training and are becoming certified Wildland Firefighters!

Started work on Baker station, in the Stanislaus National Forest. We scraped, primed and painted two buildings of eight at the site. We also built 30 shutters for windows and two for doors. All of these were installed to completion. We also painted the interior of the cook house because of a few rainy afternoons

We continued to restore Plummer Ridge Guard Station. Removed old flooring, scraped glue and paper from sub-floor, installed moisture barrier, laid wood laminate flooring in all rooms, closets and bathrooms. Scraped lead paint off old shutters, primed and painted exteriors, stenciled on new numbers to all shutters, placed shutters back on building. Touched up paint of entire interior of cabin, sanded bottoms of all interior doors to make room for newly installed flooring, installed new cabinet knobs, patched holes in flooring, cleaned all surfaces, met with Jay Watson, built three new shutters for garage, primed, painted and installed. We screwed in new latches for interior windows without hinges.
Attended prescribed burn with Grizzly Flats Fire Fighters.