USFS & DCV take on Broom Doom Project

I was another wonderful day in the land of OZ even if the Wizard could not make it due to prior work comitments, as the USFS and DCV members worked side by side on this project!

As we had previously agreed with the USFS, five DCV members: Sycamore, Paul, Richard, Celtfire and I, and the brother of one of our members were down at the springs by 9:30 enjoying a soak while we waited for our offical counterparts to arrive.

Just after 10:15 two USFS resource rangers and three young biologist arrived equipped with the necessary tools for the job. Our team dressed and quickly went over to join them. After a brief introduction we distributed the tools and set to work.

Up close and personal, there was a lot more 'Scotts Broom' than we could see from the trail. We split the work between those doing the actual cutting and those assisting in transporting the cut brooms to one central location for stacking.

We worked for a litlle more than an hour by which time several of the DCV members could no longer resist the call of our beloved springs for a quick rejuvenating dip.

We then returned to the task and continued to remove and transport the broom. After two and a half hours the eleven of us had managed to cut all the broom and had left this large clearing in the brush. Further up the hill the pile of cut broom had grown to such a size that we could hardly toss any more to the top of the pile which was a good 30 feet long by about 15 wide.

We ended the work with a quick photo session of the entire group in front of our slayed beast (the pile) and down in the huge gap that we had now left in the brush. The photos were taken by Celtfire and one of the rangers.

Then the eleven workers made our way over to the shady area under the trees and and enjoyed savoring our lunches and chatting while taking in the beautiful view that OZ offered us.

A short while after lunch the team of five from the USFS said their goodbyes and headed back up the trail with all their tools. All our members continued to enjoy the rest of the afternoon with a relaxing swim, and comingling with the day's visitors and sharing with them what we are about. Two more DCV members, Ruth and Tarah came down and joined us in the early afternoon. At the end of the day we ended up all heading out together and stopping at Nick's Pizza on the way out were we were joined by Wizard and his daughters.

As I said, it was another wonderful day at the hot springs. We all especially enjoyed working side by side with the two resource rangers and been able to meet and get to know their three biologist, and share with them our little piece of paradise. Wehope to see them again soon, and they will notify us when they will need assistance in loading a helicopter net with all the cut brush to be able to haul it out.