BFS volunteer workdays resumed last Saturday, when the volunteer crew cleared brush around the old infirmary as to reduce the fire hazard.
The very dry year (2013 precipitation so far is less than half of average) and extensive reporting on several large wildfires (including the Rim Fire near Yosemite and the Yarnell Hill Fire, which killed 19 firefighters in Arizona) have heightened anxiety wildfires, and the agencies responsible for fire prevention have asked the BFS to clear brush around the built structures at the field station, including the field house and the old infirmary.
Volunteers removed dead branches and logs, trimmed trees and shrubs to remove branches below a height of five feet, and raked up leaves and litter in an area from the front of the infirmary to the path to the outdoor classroom. Here they are at work:
BFS Director Marty Meyer pulls out a dead tree limb. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Tess Adams (Pomona ’16) saws a low branch off a shrub. ©Nancy Hamlett.
BFS Director Marty Meyer, Tim Cox, and Mike Tschudi carry a dead log out of the area. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Lin Yang (HMC ’16) rakes up leaves. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Lin Yang (HMC ’16), Cleo Stannard (HMC ’15), and BFS Director Marty Meyer rake up leaves. ©Nancy Hamlett.
The volunteers’ work made a big difference, as you can see in these before and after photographs:
An area in front of the infirmary before clearing with lots of dead vegetation and plants growing against the building. ©Nancy Hamlett.
The same area after clearing. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Another view of the area in front of the infirmary before clearing. ©Nancy Hamlett.
The same area after clearing. Dead vegetation has been removed, and trees and shrubs are pruned up from the ground. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Front of the infirmary. Left: before. Right: After, with plants against building removed, tree trimmed up, and leaves raked. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Brush clearing around the field station buildings will continue through most of the fall, so please join us if you can on the first and third Saturdays of each month. You can check the schedule here.