Storm damage in the Longmire Stewardship Campground

Tuesday's wind and rain storm played havoc with the Longmire Stewardship Campground, blowing down 65 -- yes, 65 -- trees. Rangers spent Wednesday assessing the damage and Thursday beginning the long process of cleaning it up, starting with simply removing fallen trees from access roads, including the road to our water treatment plant and back gate. A lot more work remains to be done with the help of volunteers, probably next spring.

Here are some photos of the damage as it's being sorted out on Thursday afternoon. I'm extremely grateful to the maintenance rangers for their hard work on behalf of our volunteers and partners! As you can see, we have much to do, but we were also extremely lucky. It could have been a lot worse.

The middle bathroom is being renovated, and thankfully
was not damaged.

The southern end of the employee hookup sites sustained a lot
of damage. Fortunately no one was staying here at the time.

Our carpenters are in the process of building a picnic shelter
for volunteers and partners to use. It was undamaged.

A closer view of the picnic shelter in progress.

A panoramic view of fallen trees mid-campground.
Click for a larger view.

Maintenance worker Tom Moore works on clearing fallen
trees from the platform tent loop.

The southern end of the platform tent loop sustained more
damage than anywhere else.

Fallen trees at the southwest end of
the campground.

Jackstraws, with one to three foot diameter straws.

Tom Moore wrestles with fallen trees.

Group site A, at the southern end of the campground.
Amazingly, our beautiful new picnic tables sustained
only the most minor of damage. None were hit directly.

Mid-campground, just north of the shower building.

Some places are a real mess...

At the southern end of the employee area, as viewed from
the east side of the campground.

Immediately behind the Community Building.

This photo perfectly illustrates how lucky we were. This
tree missed the fire box (with its brand new roof installed
by volunteers this August) and fire hydrant by six inches.