22 May Tread Lightly! Impact Report: Tank Hollow Road Appliance Removal

Project: Tank Hollow Road Appliance Removal
Location: Virginia

Description: On April 12, a small group of passionate motorized recreationists attempted to tackle a site that has been a problem area in the George Washington-Jefferson National Forest for multiple years.

While small in scope, this project was not without its degrees of collaboration, cooperation, and compromise. The project objective? Remove multiple household appliances which have been dumped down a very steep, rugged and lengthy ravine.

The plan for the team of four volunteers was for two members to rappel down the ravine to be the permanent down-hill riggers. Two remained at the top to operate the equipment and winch lines.

It took four hours to retrieve one refrigerator due to the steepness and length of the ravine wall. A simple vehicle winch cable isn’t long enough to get to the area where the appliances rested. So, multiple recovery ropes piecemealed to the winch line made the process quite challenging and cumbersome.

The process was a major learning experience and gave organizers the knowledge to come back with the necessary tools, hardware and equipment to tackle the rest of the appliances later. The catch-of-the-day was loaded into a USFS truck and headed to where it should have been dumped in the first place.

Thank you to the partners who made this possible:

• USFS – Glenwood Peddler District
• New Horizons Overland
• East Coast Overland Adventures
• Walt Middleton, Tread Lightly! Tread Trainer

“A huge thank you to Walt, Jonathan, John and Dean for taking on this huge challenge and brainstorming new ways to try and tackle this challenge. There are already discussions underway for returning to this location with new equipment and supplies to tackle this appliance removal project. More planning, new supplies, maybe a couple more volunteers, but all in good time. Afterall, how do you eat an elephant? Thank you all for helping Tread Lightly! Protect the Adventure!”-Lowell Eckart, Southeast Program Manager, Tread Lightly!

“Big thank you to John, Jonathan, and Dean. This was a group effort to plan and execute. We were successful in what we set out to do, which was recovering some appliances in a safe manner from a very challenging location. In doing so, we discovered what worked, what didn’t, and developed a workable plan to finish the project the next time we get back to tackle it!” – Walt Middleton – Volunteer and Tread Lightly! Master Tread Trainer 

Want to get involved in your own Tread Lightly! project? Find upcoming activities, events and grant opportunities at treadlightly.org.