Tom Havard didn’t see when a tree standing on national forest land fell across the Lake Mitchell canal near Camp Torenta.
He didn’t hear it either.
What he did see, however, was a giant oak tree that was blocking the canal so people who live off of the canal could not navigate their boats into the body of the lake. The situation was more dire for those who were visiting the area, renting a house and had to leave town without their boat.
Tom and his wife Carol live near where the tree fell and while he owns a small boat, he said there is a canal full of big pontoons. The concern, especially with the Fourth of July holiday quickly approaching, is those who live in the area will be landlocked unless the tree is removed.
Tom said he inspected where the tree fell and found a beaver lodge. He believes the beavers weakened the root system and during the recent storms and gusty winds, the tree toppled. Since the tree was on national forest land it was believed the agency would have to remedy the problem.
Lake Mitchell Improvement Board member Dave Foley was out of town and returned on Tuesday. He said while those who live on the lake provide funds for the chemical treatment of invasive and nuisance aquatic vegetation, they don’t do trees. He said this isn’t the first time a tree has fallen into the canal and some years ago property owners had to take care of it.
This tree was much bigger than that one.
Firefighter crews from the forest service including engine captain Rick Davis went to the canal on Monday to remove the tree. When they arrived thinking a few could handle the tree, they quickly realized they were undermanned.
“Our crews (forest service firefighters) have a lot of experience with chainsaws,” he said. “Oftentimes, trees come down in campsites, or something like this, and we might come out to assist.”
Davis said he is not certain if the storms, winds, beavers or a combination of all those things led to the tree falling, but it looked like a live tree that broke off at the base.
Travis Owens, Huron-Manistee National Forest Public Affairs Officer, said 10 10-person forest service crew returned to the location Tuesday and working with nearby homeowners, accessed the canal to cut up the fallen oak. Using chainsaws, Owens said the crew worked on the portion of the tree on shore and immediately adjacent to it, where the water was shallow enough to wade.
With support from the Baldwin/White Cloud Ranger District, Owens said part of the crew launched a boat from the Hemlock Campground. Working from the vessel, Owens said a trained sawyer removed limbs and cut the bole (the trunk) of the tree into smaller pieces that could cleared from the canal. By the afternoon, access to the body of the lake from the canal was restored.
As for the size of the tree, Davis said the forest service uses a measurement called diameter at breast height or DBH. He said the measurement is taken by wrapping a tape measure around the diameter of the tree at, you guessed it, breast height. He said the oak tree that fell across the canal off of Lake Mitchell was between 30 to 40 inches in diameter.
Although the tree was large, Davis said he wasn’t sure of its age as they didn’t take a cross-section of the tree or count its rings.
As for the tree itself, Davis said crews pulled as much of the brush and wood to the banks of the canal as they could. For the larger logs, they floated out of the way and to the shore. They also used the boat to pull them.
“A majority of the wood will get pulled over to the private property and some will get pulled over to the forest service land. The forest service does have firewood cutting permits but due to the ease of access here, most people are not going to want to come get.”
The part of the tree that will stay in the water will likely have a little bit of fish habitat and Davis said it also will help with shoreline stabilization. He said the crew knew it was never something that was totally going to be removed but they wanted to make it passable for boats.
