On March 5, 2008 the Wisconsin Army National Guard airlifted 75 tons of mature trees to improve wildlife habitat in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. The aviation training mission used UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to lift the trees on the east shore of Long Lake. (Photo by Steve Apps, courtesy of the Wisconsin State Journal)
There’s an old saying that goes ‘There’s more
life in a dead tree than a live one.’ That’s because
bugs and birds and burrowing animals can all find homes
in dead trees. Trees that are cut down are also sometimes
dropped into lakes to make habitat for fish. Chuck
Quirmbach reports sometimes getting the right tree to the
right spot requires some creative thinking:
Transcript
There’s an old saying that goes ‘There’s more
life in a dead tree than a live one.’ That’s because
bugs and birds and burrowing animals can all find homes
in dead trees. Trees that are cut down are also sometimes
dropped into lakes to make habitat for fish. Chuck
Quirmbach reports sometimes getting the right tree to the
right spot requires some creative thinking:
(helicopter noise)
It’s not every day you seen an upside down tree flying through the air.
But this Blackhawk helicopter is skimming along with a big tree dangling on a
line beneath it.
We’ll get to why in a moment. But to do that you’ve got to meet the guy who thought
up the idea.
Mark Sesing is sitting in his pickup truck. He’s
a wildlife manager – actually, a water specialist. He’s looking through the windshield at a
stretch of shoreline of Long Lake in Wisconsin.
“The habitat’s been stripped away. We’ve got piers; we’ve got boats, boathouses, we’ve got houses
and cottages. All that development has resulted in, I guess what I’ll call a
sterilization of the shore.”
On the other side of the lake there’s an area that’s a bit better for birds and fish.
But Sesing thought the wildlife needed a little help. He knew putting some dead
trees there could benefit the animals.
Put the crown of the tree in the water for the fish, so they can hide from predators
and lay eggs in the thicket. Put the trunk on the shore, and all kinds of animals can
make a home. Or birds can find bugs in the dead tree.
But there was a problem: you couldn’t get to the area with trucks without cutting a road down a steep hillside. And Mark Sesing was not interested in damaging more of the
shoreline.
So he got to thinking. Why not get the Wisconsin Air National Guard to help?
(helicopter sound)
So why would the Air Guard want to move trees? Practice!
Chief Warrant Officer Dirk Brandt is with the National Guard’s 832nd medical
company. He says practicing lifting trees and placing them on the shoreline could
help pilots and crew prepare for a med.-evac. lift in a war zone.
“If it was medical supplies, or critical medical supplies, since our unit is med.-evac., then the more we practice with, I guess you could say, ‘inanimate objects’, then the
better off when we actually physically have to do it.”
The airlift worked like this: first, one of the copters would hover over a forested
area about a quarter mile from the lake. That’s where trees had been cut down to
improve the health of the woods.
(hover sound)
Then, ground crew would grab a nylon strap hanging down from the aircraft and wrap it around a tree.
(helicopter lifting sound)
The helicopter would then go up. And carry the dead tree to the water’s edge.
(helicopter fades)
By the time the project was done, there were 23 dead trees placed along about a-
quarter mile of lake shoreline.
Wildlife managers will start watching the trees and collecting scientific data on the
project this summer. They estimate the trees will provide habitat for fish and birds for
the next ten to twenty years.
For the Environment report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.
