Despite the snow and cold temperatures, Russell Tree Experts is staying busy this winter with several interesting projects.
In mid-November 2020 we mobilized to Gatlinburg, TN to begin a 5-month project for the Smoky Mountains National Park system. The bulk of this project is removing dead and hazardous trees along roadways, campgrounds, and parking areas throughout the park. Many of the trees being removed have been killed by wooly adelgid or severely damaged by the Gatlinburg wildfire of 2016. We are also safety pruning over high traffic areas and clearing several scenic vistas.
From mid-November 2020 through January 2021, we had crews working in Johnstown, Pennsylvania clearing the historic Lake Conemaugh. Lake Conemaugh, which no longer exists as a true lake, became famous in May of 1889 after the failure of its South Fork dam sent a current, comparable to the flow of the Mississippi River, through the town of Johnstown, PA resulting in the deaths of over 2,200 people. The purpose of our work was to clear vegetation that had established in the former lakebed, helping to visually represent the water level of the lake prior to the flood event. The original lakebed covers over 40 acres and had gone unmanaged for years. With our work there completed, Pennsylvania Parks and Rec along with their Division of Forestry will manage the area going forward with prescribed fires, mowing, and the use of goats on some of the steeper rocky slopes.
Excavator mulching woody vegetation in the previous footprint of Lake Conemaugh
On January 2nd, 2021 we mobilized crews to Oklahoma City, OK for 5 weeks to assist in vegetation clean-up from a historic ice storm that struck there toward the end of October 2020. October is a time when many deciduous trees in Oklahoma are still holding onto their foliage, so the ice accumulation and damage was particularly bad, toppling thousands of trees and leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power for several days.
Picking up the remnants of the Oklahoma City ice storm
From January 11, 2021 to the present, we have had crews working in Virginia on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is an approximately 10-week project where we are clearing 122 vistas from Buena Vista, VA North to the Shenandoah Valley. Our main objective is to maintain a clean line of sight from the road to the spectacular viewing areas that the park service installed when the parkway was created. Our progress has been slowed by the epic amount of snow we’ve received in the higher elevations, but our cabin is cozy, and the mountains are inspiring.
And locally, our home team has kept busy with a mix of tree preservation, tree pruning, and tree removal work. We are currently working through several municipal street tree pruning projects and working hard to wrap up our oak and elm pruning before the start of spring. The weather conditions these past few weeks have made this winter one of the more challenging we have worked through, so I want to thank everyone for their patience, flexibility, and understanding as we work to adjust with mother nature.
Our knuckle boom crane set up to remove a declining sugar maple from a back yard (Columbus, Ohio)
Russell Tree Experts is proud to have our roots in central Ohio and we have a deep appreciation for all our clients at home. We cannot thank you enough!
TJ Nagel | Scheduling Production Manager, Russell Tree Experts
ISA Certified Arborist® OH-6298A // Graduated from The Ohio State University in 2012, Earned B.S. in Agriculture with a major in Landscape Horticulture and minor in Entomology // Tree Risk Assessment Qualified (TRAQ) // Russell Tree Experts Arborist Since 2010