Hello Everyone,

 

On Wednesday, July 31, 2019, eight FOSM volunteers felled a large tree, split the wood, and loaded it on a trailer at Dan's Loop located between 10K Trailhead and Ellis Trailhead along the Crest Highway.

 

Crystal Powell, Sandia District Ranger, issued a permit for one cord of fire wood to Joe Meade, a USFS retiree who is blind from a jeep accident when he was 16 years old and is now retired in Corrales. Lou Romero drove Joe's large pickup and dump trailer to the Ranger Station and then to Dan's Loop.

 

Four large dead fir trees are located within a tree length of the pavement on this former curve in the Crest Highway. Lou suggested that we fell the largest one with a diameter of 32 inches. After it was on the ground, we bucked it into 12-inch to 15-inch lengths, split all the rounds into four or six pieces for easier handling, and loaded it on Joe's trailer. Joe arranged the wood in the trailer by feel into a perfect load that would make any of us proud.  He also split three rounds by locating the steel wedges by feel and then striking them in rotation with an 8-pound sledge hammer. Joe's dump trailer was loaded with a cord of wood that Lou dumped at Joe's house. Joe and Lou plan to split the largerquarters into smaller pieces later this fall using Lou's power splitter.  

 

The volunteers working on this project were Jerry Carroll, Dan Benton, Sam Beard, Lou Romero, Joe Meade, Eric Russell, Jim Levesque, and Dennis Crowther.  

 

Photos are presented in the attached Word document.

 

Sam Beard and Lou Romero

Project Leaders