Removing Obstacles

Here's another sustainable forestry post for your distraction. I'm not pushing sustainable forestry as a political point, just writing about my life and the things I do now and then.

I'm clearing some small rocks from forest trails these days. This is what I do after marking, clearing debris, and cutting trees from the trail corridor.

In spots, the forest trail resembles farm land fence lines with years
of field stones piled up from frost pushing them to the surface
then thrown aside.

I find using a heavy demolition metal pry bar the best tool for
the job of extracting the semi-buried rocks.

The problem, of course, is filling in the empty space created once the rock
is removed from the trail to make a smooth surface. If only I had a rock
I could put in there....

Many of these rocks are like earth bound icebergs - 10% above ground,
90% below. This is a deceptively large rock. A rock/boulder. A roulder.

Part of the 'fun' of removing the big rocks is figuring out how to get the
job done. I fall back on caveman technology here. I brace the rock up
with the pry bar in one hand while I place a tree limb in the hole beneath
the rock to raise it up.

Then pry the rock up some more.

At some point, I just have to get down and push the rock out with leg,
body, and arm power. This is risky as the rock could shift on the
supporting tree limbs and fall back toward me. Got to be ready
to get clear in an instant.