BUTLER — The smell of pine trees and gasoline filled the air Saturday morning on the Clear Fork Valley Scenic Trail as the North Central Ohio Land Conservancy joined forces with a group of volunteers from Team Rubicon.
Eric Miller, board president of NCOLC, said he reached out to Team Rubicon after a June tornado left stacks of fallen trees blocking much of the main trail.
While Team Rubicon specializes in residential disaster relief, Miller said he thought the trail could be a training opportunity that offered chainsaw practice for volunteers.
“It’s like the tornado walked our trail,” Miller said. “I started trying to line up Team Rubicon initially in October, but Hurricane Ian came along and they were needed in Florida. So that’s how we ended up getting them seven months after the tornado.”
Miller said NCOLC wanted to preserve “mother nature’s artwork” as much as possible and leave fallen or wind-damaged trees that visitors can walk over or duck under on hikes.
He organized some employees and volunteers from NCOLC to clear the trail of branches and tree trunk pieces. Team Rubicon handled most of the chainsaw work.
Team Rubicon volunteers worked to clear walking paths on the main trail from Friday to Monday. Miller organized free lodging for the volunteers with Camp Nuhop.
“I will keep doing all I can to make sure we get them back again,” Miller said. “They really want to come back and they are convinced we provide the perfect support and setting for a formal training session.”
Russ Hessler, Team Rubicon administration coordinator for central Ohio, said sawing fallen trees on a recreational trail is good practice for natural disaster home relief.
“It’s a positive for NCOLC but it’s also a win for us because we get more practice time,” he said. “These trees that came down during a wind storm are just like what we typically cut on, but here, it’s not affecting someone’s home.”
Hessler said Team Rubicon volunteers work in a minimum group of three people to allow one person to saw, one to supervise and one to haul logs out of the work area.
Lea Ruscio, Cleveland-area task force leader, said each Team Rubicon volunteer also acts as a safety officer.
The Clear Fork trail clean-up aimed to help new sawyers get practice using chainsaws while experienced sawyers supervised their work.
Ruscio said Team Rubicon has more than 160,000 members and volunteers across the country, including more than 1,500 volunteers in the northeast Ohio region. The nonprofit is veteran-led, but anyone who believes in the mission is welcome to join.
“A lot of what we do is going out after disasters — hurricanes, floods, tornadoes — things like that,” Ruscio said. “Mostly what we’re focused on is get the bad stuff out so folks can get back into their homes quicker.”
Ruscio said Team Rubicon volunteers wanted to keep the Clear Fork trail “as natural as possible.”
“We need the trail to be clear, but we’re following the requests and guidance of the conservancy so that we leave a good impact on the community here,” she said.
Visit teamrubiconusa.org to volunteer or donate.
The North Central Ohio Land Conservancy also accepts donations and volunteer applications online.
