Boy Scout troop replaces storm-damaged trees in Vinton

VINTON - Fifty years from now, members of Boy Scouts Troop 47 can bring their grandchildren to a woodlot full of mature oak and walnut trees they planted Saturday.

'It will be neat to come back in the future to see how they've grown,” said Eagle Scout Andrew Sampson, 18, of Vinton, one of about 20 members of Troop 47 (for Boy Scouts) and Pack 47 (for Cub Scouts) who helped reforest a timber destroyed by the July 11, 2011, derecho that flattened trees and cornfields and blew down buildings in Benton, Tama and several other Iowa counties.

The derecho, with straight-line winds topping out at 130 mph, leveled a 7-acre woodlot with many mature oak, hickory, basswood and cottonwood trees, said Russ Glime, 62, who lives on an acreage west of Vinton.

Glime said he salvaged 10 semi trailer loads of saw logs, pallet lumber and firewood before inviting the Scouts to help with planting the 500 bare-root red oak and black walnut seedlings obtained from the Department of Natural Resources nursery in Ames.

Though Glime himself will never see the full glory of the replanted trees, he said his reward will be in making it available to future generations.

Ryan Levis, 15, Troop 47's senior patrol leader, said the project fits with Scouts' commitment to conservation and community service.

'Community service is one of the things that define the Scout program,” he said.

Though the project required considerable spade work, the Scouts said they enjoyed it.

'It's been a long winter, and it's great to spend time outside on a nice day,” Levis said.

Scoutmaster Jay Lash of Vinton said the Scouts were happy to help a landowner who was not willing to accept the loss of his trees.

Most of the Scouts' families also suffered damage in the 2011 derecho and could identify with Glime's loss, said Lash, who lost two large trees and part of his roof in the storm.

'This is a good project. It teaches the kids about conservation and helping out your neighbor,” said Pack 47 leader Melvin Hurst of Vinton, who brought two of his grandchildren to the tree-planting bee.

Glime said he seeded the denuded woodlot last fall with six bushels of acorns and two bushels of walnuts. Between the seed and the seedlings, Glime said he expects the bare hillsides to again be shaded in a few years.

The derecho, a rare storm type characterized by straight-line winds exceeding 100 mph, inflicted immense damage along a 20-mile-wide path stretching from Story to Linn County. Tama and Benton, the hardest-hit counties, were declared disaster areas by the governor. More than three-fourths of the trees in Vinton were destroyed.