Today I met with three people from the NRCS, Greg Dills, Korinn Smith, and Erin O'Farrell. What an eye opening walk that was.
I showed them the big gully that has washed from a low spot in the road, and they had several very good ideas for how to deal with it. The first step is to flag the edges so that I can keep track of how much erodes this winter.
They also had some really good ideas on how to stablize the crevass with woody limbs and dirt in little terraces. I will def. be calling them again about references on that issue.
Then we looked at the Tree of Contention and Erin's considered opinion was that we could pull the part on the other bank over and cut it up on the beach using a come along to do the pulling.
I skipped one part...we looked at all the willows along the bank and agreed that it seemed as though someone had planted, or stuck limbs in that part of the bank at some point...they just looked awfully placed.
As to the part of the tree that is on my side of the creek, the general consensus was that it was providing habitat for fish and game and wasn't a general hazard.
When we got out to the point area and they saw Gail's peninsula they felt that there was no way to save that under any circumstances. Eventually Copsey Creek is going to cut right thru that neck. And when that happens, it will change the hydrology on both Cache and Copsey Creek so there would be no point to trying to do anything with that exposed area now. It will be a question of wait and see.
Completing the circuit, we contemplated the main field which is a fine crop of the horrible Medusa Head. Mowing in the early spring is the proposed plan, but to do it early enough might mean trying to do it when the ground is too wet to permit access.
It was a great walk and I sure learned a lot. We even had a brief tour of the Pioneer Cemetery...
When I got home and started to write this, it occurred to me to call Stuart and see if he wanted to tackle the tree again. As luck would have it, he was near by and on his way home so he came over for a quick caulking job and then we headed back over to the land to take another look at the tree.
This time we first went on the far side of the creek down Quarterhorse Lane to Bass Lane, and met Cindy who lives across from me, with her two labs...she allowed us access to her giant garden plot where Stuart could get a little better look at the part of the tree on the East Bank. After looking from that side, we went back over to my land and looked again, and he thinks the come along idea will work. He will try to get Bill and do it on this Monday. The plan is to pull it over to my side and then hack it up!
I hope it works.
I gave Erin the list of proposed seed mixture from Hedgerow Farms for future reference. They thought the mix was a good one for this area, so that was another thing that made me happy. Simple simple me. What a complicated undertaking here, but it is fascinating.
And to make the day really wonderful, on the way home I saw a Piliated Woodpecker on Dam Rd...when I finally raised the camera, he hooting his way into the vines and kept up a wild racket, but wouldn't show himself again. He was enormous!
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