When my wife and I decided to move back to Mitchell, where she was born and raised and where we both attended Dakota Wesleyan University, we had several priorities. One of them was, of course, finding a place to live, and we did that. We constructed a house on a nearly treeless lot just a couple miles outside of city limits.
Right away, we wanted to be completely surrounded by trees, so we turned to Marc Mebius for assistance. At the time, I distinctly recall Marc explaining that those who obtain treeless properties are often inclined to populate them with greenery. Conversely, those with trees galore often look at ways to immediately eradicate them .
.. not sure about the later, but I certainly wanted trees where there weren’t any.
And so, true to his words, I began a tree-planting spree. This was 18 years ago, and this summer marked the occasion of pruning numerous trees that had weathered several heavy snows and frequent visits from deer. The lower limbs of the pine trees had died, making it easy for weeds and grasses to grow beneath them, but also making it difficult to mow around the base.
Armed with a chainsaw recently fitted with a new blade, compliments of my father-in-law, I began the task. It was a chore that immediately raised memories of a similar undertaking over 30 years ago. During that time, my father (and I, due to being his son) enrolled in a Stewardship Program in the Black Hills.
The program had been aimed at assisting private forest landowners in activel.