After the storm, park staff and volunteers began to survey the damage and it quickly became evident that dozens of trees were down with many trails completely impassable. A call went out for help from all volunteers who is chainsaw certified for Delaware State Parks. This really was a “Perfect Storm” since the park was already short-staffed due to the normal tree care personnel helping to fight wildfires out west. Trail Spinners answered the call and shifted their focus to the Judge Morris area after having just cleared numerous large trees in Middle Run (including a particularly difficult large beech on Double Horseshoe).

The Chestnut Hill Trail in Judge Morris had a total of 16 “downed trees”, though that number is a bit misleading since some of those blow-downs involved multiple trees, or a large tree that fell and shattered into dozens of logs and branches. When the saw crews arrived, it sometimes took a few minutes just to locate the trail before any cutting could start.

In total, the cutting spanned 4 days, with two of those days in Judge Morris, which was hardest hit. A rider reported afterward that they counted 25 areas with fresh sawdust throughout White Clay and Middle Run.

Trail Spinners received an outpouring of praise and thanks from both the WCCSP staff as well as leadership at DNREC.