Will we have CEU's and a new merit badge?

[wulkowicz]

Will we have CEU\'s and a new merit badge?

Beartooth NBC | Helena News | Great Falls News - Exploding Trees

Forest Service trying explosives to fell trees

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) -- U.S. Forest Service workers have exchanged axes and saws for sticks of high explosives in southwestern Montana to bring down beetle-killed pine trees that pose unique dangers.

Crew member Gordon Ash says workers brought down some 500 trees last week in the Pioneer Mountains by blowing up the trunks. He says beetle-killed trees often rot from the inside out, making them prone to shattering and falling in unpredictable ways.

Charlie Showers of the Missoula Technology and Development Center saysanother problem is the Forest Service doesn't have many sawyers because the days of doing that activity are long gone.

Showers tells the Missouilan that crews are learning the most efficient way to bring down beetle-killed trees with explosives.

------

Information from: Missoulian
AP-WF-05-13-12 2046GMT

---------------------------------

Stumbled unto by Bob Wulkowicz

 

[chep]

Re: Will we have CEU\'s and a new merit badge?

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/2785-trying-to-preserve-a-national-treasure

When I visited Joyce Kilner recently I saw huge hemlocks seemingly sheared at the base by what I thought were high winds...
In hindsight I remember thinking "the wind did a nice job laying these trees out, not much damage to the surrounding overstory"
They used explosives cos, they arent banned in wilderness areas apparently, but motorized machinery i:e chainsaws are.

I want that job!
I want that job!

 

[evo]

Re: Will we have CEU\'s and a new merit badge?

I hear or read some where that the usfs tried blowing up top of trees to create habatat snags. I aways wanted to have an explosives job in demo. Guess thats why i like treework, still get the crash (no bang tho)