Barge built for tree cutting at Horsetooth

By JoAn Bjarko
North Forty News

David Jordan never thought he would need a barge to run a tree maintenance business in northern Colorado. A unique problem and a bunch of brainstorming, however, prompted him to order not just one, but two.

Jordan's Tree Moving and Maintenance Inc. was the successful bidder on a job at Horsetooth Reservoir that required the company to cut about 4,000 dead or dying cottonwood trees killed by lack of water during the drought and dam reconstruction.

Mark Caughlan, the Horsetooth district manager for county parks, explained that cottonwoods survive on seasonal moisture. Hundreds of trees died while the reservoir was held at dead storage for three years so the Bureau of Reclamation could renovate its dams, and Colorado endured successive drought years at the same time.

When the reservoir was filled to capacity again this year, and boaters returned to their playground, the falling dead trees presented a hazard, Caughlan said. Trees could also get caught in the reservoir's outlet and impede water flow.

When studying the request for bids, Jordan said, he and his employees were presented with the problem of cutting the trees and disposing of waste without damaging the surrounding terrain. Employees Jim Parker, "a real handy guy" who repairs the company's equipment, and field manager Dennis Kelley floated the idea of a barge that could travel around the reservoir close to the banks, loading and off-loading equipment as needed.

Larimer County and the federal Bureau of Reclamation liked the idea. "It was one of the more creative bids," Caughlan said. Although the county managed the contract, the Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the reservoir, paid the bill of about $340,000.

Once the bid was awarded, Jordan had to find some barges - an easy task using the Internet. A Florida company built two 10-by-40-foot barges and shipped them to Colorado within three months. Parker fabricated the rest of the structure for the tree-cutting venture. His work included a way to pin together the two barges to form a single platform and construction of a retractable hydraulic ramp to get people and equipment on and off shore. The barge carried diesel engines for power, a small equipment shed and a log chipper. A crew of four, led by barge operator Jim Schultz, worked along the reservoir from early July to late October to complete the task.

"I was a little nervous at first, but I think it went really well," Jordan said.

When the chipper could not be moved off the ramp, the crew hauled in the logs with a winch and shot the chips onto the bank. Caughlan said it would have been too costly to haul away the chips.

The crew worked from shore during the first part of the year to cut trees that were easily accessible.

Now that Jordan has two barges in Colorado, and an experienced barge crew, he is hoping his company can get similar work with other water projects.