As a pair of recent storms moved through the Bradford area recently many residents have had to deal with downed trees, branches, and utility outages. Many are still working on cleanup activities. The Tuna Valley Trails also experienced some of these same problems. Many thanks to our local trail stewards for cleanup efforts whether it was just moving some branches from the trails or brandishing chainsaws for the larger problems. Several larger trees on the McDowell Trail and the Marilla Bridges Trail were removed. One of the more challenging problems was a large group of tree blowdowns in a very remote section of the Marilla Springs Trail about 3/4 of the way up to the top. After several visits to the site, text messages, emails, and phone calls, a couple of our trail stewards agreed to tackle this difficult problem. Mark Luciano and Tim Crissman utilized the TVTA side by side ATV to transport their equipment and travel into the area of the blowdowns for cleanup. While the pictures show the blowdown area, they do not really convey how large it was and the difficulty encountered to clear the trail. After about 4 hours of work, dodging raindrops most of the time, the Great Marilla Springs Trail Blowdown of 2020 was cleared. Tim’s skills and experience as Chief of the District #15 WildFire Suppression Team continue to be greatly appreciated when we encounter difficult circumstances such as these. Mark has worked with Tim on several of these more challenging types of activities over the past few years to keep our trails open, available for all to utilize.
Thanks again to all of those that chipped in to help with cleanup.
