Friends of Morrow Mountain State Park

IN MY OWN OPINION (as I'm not in a position to speak for the park), park staff from all over the state have been working extremely hard these three weeks on the recovery: setting up signs and attending traffic and questions at the gate; bringing heavy equipment from other parks; clearing the route to the top so construction of the new restrooms can continue; felling, limbing, and bucking trees; chipping limbs; using tractors, track hoe, skid steer, and logging winch to load up to 4 dump trucks moving logs to the bridle trail for a future tub grinder; using another tractor to stack those logs; doing secondary inspections in search of more danger trees; maintaining chainsaws and heavy equipment that are getting some very heavy use; repairing electrical, water, and septic systems; tarping damaged roofs; keeping the office and lodge presentable; delivering fuels and bottled water to numerous organized crews; assessing needs for tree surgeons and building contractors and reconstruction materials; hiking trails to survey tree and culvert damage; clearing road debris; documenting labor and travel; and surely far more of which I'm not aware. The office staff cover constant phone calls and unscramble reservations, and have very generously supplied some meals for our greatly augmented staff. The weather has been "uncooperative", trees and limbs are still falling, and staff keep working in heat, rain, and thunder. The most strenuous job is operating chainsaws, in hot protective gear, in hot, wet weather, ending the day soaked in sweat from head to toe. The full-time and seasonal staff are tough and smart, changing personal schedules to work 10-hour days, and travel, and we've had no serious injuries. We are blessed that volunteers and regular visitors, who regard Morrow Mountain as their personal sanctuary, are patient while we hustle to make the park reasonably safe before letting more people in. When we reopen, most likely August 5, you'll see a park that has obviously been a battle to recover, and some interesting differences, such as many new openings in the forest canopy, for one....