Trees to begin growing on C Hill again

Dozens of mature pines were thriving there before they were burnt to a crisp by the Spotted Tail wildfire that roared through the area last July 28 and didn’t stop until it reached the edge of the campus at the bottom of the hill.

At least 75 of the damaged trees were removed earlier this month by John Hahn, who will turn them into chips for use in the college’s wood-fired boilers that both heat and cool the buildings at Chadron State.

Thanks to the Upper Niobrara-White Natural Resources District, four Chadron Girl Scouts who are seeking the coveted Gold Award and members of the college’s building and grounds staff, new trees will soon be planted to replace the ones that were destroyed.

The NRD has provided 200 seedlings which the Girl Scouts will plant and college workers have laid a pipeline that will provide water to help them grow.

“Lots of cooperation is involved,” said Lucinda Mays, the CSC facilities horticulturist who is helping the Girl Scouts. “It’s essentially a gardening project. It’s going to be a lot of work, but some day we’ll realize it was all worthwhile.”

The Girl Scouts have been sophomores at Chadron High School this year. All of them have been members of Troop 98 since they were fifth-graders. They will work side-by-side, but each has a special area of responsibility. For instance, Andrea Franklin is making sure the water line goes the right places, Joslyn Young is in charge of placing the trees and digging the holes for them, Alaina Jackson will handle the planting and packing the soil around the roots and Trina Kuhnel will oversee building the wire cages and staking them down to protect the trees.

“Without the cages, the trees would be like salad for the deer,” said Mays. “We’ll water the trees and try to keep the cages in place for three years. After that the trees will be on their own.”

KCSR Radio is donating the money to purchase the chicken wire for the cages. The contribution is from the sale of DVDs containing pictures of the fire.

The seedlings were obtained from the Colorado State University nursery at Fort Collins, according to Charlie Snook, the NRD tree program manager. While he’s been responsible for the distribution of some 240,000 seedlings in the four-county area this spring, the trees for the C Hill project are special to him. He’s a graduate of both the old Chadron Prep high school and Chadron State.

“It will be nice to see trees growing up there again,” he said. “It will take some time for these to get very big, but they should develop into nice trees. These trees have a good root system and it sounds like they’re going to get good care. That will be a big boost. This is a harsh area for trees that don’t get much help, particularly when we’re having a drought.”

The C Hill seedlings are from six inches to a foot in height, but have about an eight-inch root that is inside a Styrofoam container filled with dirt. The Styrofoam will be removed when the trees are planted.

Mays said the trees will be placed in serpentine fashion on either side of the C. Silas Kern, the college’s lead groundskeeper, is the behind the scenes man. He’s been in charge of installing a pump that will force the water up the pipeline to the top of C Hill. Gravity will then return the water down the hill in a smaller pipe. A drip emitter will be installed wherever a tree is planted.

Mays said if all goes well the trees should be shoulder high in seven years and stand 20-feet tall in about 35 years.

She noted that while hiking up C Hill on Friday to scope out the project she and the girls stopped at a pile of the trees that had been cut down and counted the rings on a few of them. Some of the trees were at least 60 years old.

“The girls, who are now 15, couldn’t imagine being 75 years old one day when the little trees they’re going to plant will be big, mature trees. They’ll have some stories to tell their grandchildren.”