People often ask, what do you land managers do in the winter? Well, plenty: control invasive plants, mow meadows, check conservation easments, monitor hazard trees, and more.
We have a comprehensive hazard tree program, where we monitor and proactively remove hazard trees--trees that have both a defect that could cause them to fall, and a target, such as a road or structure. When other trees fall in the woods, that is part of nature and they rot and return nutrients to the soil, become a home for wildlife, and serve as a nursery for young trees.
When a tree falls along the edge of the woods, into a farm field, we "clean it up" to get it out of the farmer's way. Some branches are chipped and used to surface the trails. Large straight trunks we mill and use in our building restorations. Large branches we cut up, use for the weight in the pickup truck when we plow snow, and later use as firewood. And some we put back into the woods, where it recycles back into more trees.
