Hitch lead: Shannon Montano
Member: Erica Madden
Shannon and Erica were once again trucking through the dense stands of Challis National Forest. Our supervisor, Wesley Case, was out of the office so we were on our own, but our intense training and acquired skills prepared us for proper stand examination.
We continued to see defoliation and bark beetle, a few stands were devastated by insect pests but we persevered through the disaster zone.
We found a four-hundred-fifty year Douglas-Fir amongst the wreckage. It had also been hit by the bark beetle although it had seen the founding of the United States by white settlers; it could not live through the bark beetle epidemic! Alas, its end has come.
On the sunny side of the slope, we happened upon orphan White Bark Pine, a threatened tree normally found in high elevations. This sighting provided hope for the troublesome stands of the Challis National Forest.