Written by Sage Bradford, Wild Stew Field Crew Member.
This past week, Wild Stew returned to the Gila National Forest to resume our meadow restoration along Dry Blue Creek. This project initially began in 2024 with Wild Stew having previously run two meadow thinning hitches. This marked the third hitch of many more. Previously, we had worked about a 1/2 mile of the Dry Blue canyon with 2,000+ trees cut. This hitch, we pushed further into the canyon and cut a whopping 3,001 trees! Some 5,000 trees have now been cut by the hands of Wild Stew. It is thrilling to watch a forest steadily return to meadow!
The goal of meadow thinning is to restore ecosystem health and watershed functionality, increasing the availability and prolonging the flow of clean water. Currently (but not for long!), the tree and shrub density within the woodland and forest ecosystems is much higher than what occurred in the past. Our efforts help to reverse degradation by past management practices and fire suppression.
All felled trees were smaller diameter Ponderosa pine or juniper. Felled trees were then limbed and scattered. All slash was cut to below knee height. Additionally, every 20 yards, 5 yard fuel breaks were created to limit the amount of continuous fuels on the ground. In stands with small Ponderosa pine, every 30 feet, the largest pine with the best form and crowns were left. Some cut juniper was saved for use in future stream channel restoration features. In November, Wild Stew will be returning to the Dry Blue in tandem with Natural Channel Designs to begin work on said stream channel restoration structures.
This project was a great opportunity for the crew to hone their chainsawing skills. With a wealth of trees to drop, ranging from simple slash cuts to directional falling and occasionally more complicated scenarios, this project gave the crew the exciting chance to experiment, learn and grow. This hitch seemed to fly by, so engrossed was I in sawing!
