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Update on the previous message below. Due to the short time period to orchestrate work on the forest with the Bradshaw Rotary Interact group and our members before school is out in May, we look at lining this up in the fall, after school starts and when it is cooler again. The Forest Service will not be doing the prescribed burn for a couple years so we have time to organize this properly.
On March 28th Andy and Candace Tomlinson met up with Ben DeBlois, Forester with the US Forest Service. He led us out Copper Basin Road where we parked our cars near High Valley Ranch subdivision and then walked a 1/4 mile to a site that the Forest Service needs help clearing. We can do as little or as much of the 5 acre site that we want or are able to do. The hillside has manzanita and another shrub crowding in around the 5 to 7 foot pine trees. The Forest Service plans to do a control burn in the neighboring area in the near future and would like to extend it to this section also, so these young pines have a chance of growing old. However, if the shrubs around the pines are not cut back from around the pines the young pines would have trouble surviving.
The project involves hiking in the 1/4 mile; bring gloves, loppers and hand saws to cut away the shrubs near the pines, piling the cut shrubs in a huge pile that can be burned later. Kevin suggested involving the Interact group in PV to add some additional muscle.
This project would be an alternative to our club participating in planting a tree for each member as our Rotary International President is championing. Instead we would be making our forest healthier and regenerate an area with pines while also, creating a defensible space around Prescott. I am excited about this fresh air service project that helps maintain the beauty of our mountains and forests and hope that you find it an exciting opportunity also.