Once again, we had another busy month for habitat. On August 7, Doug Appel and his granddaughter went up to Rincon Road and did some clearing and trail improvement on R3. On August 10, Doug and I went to check the guzzlers in the Wrightwood area installed by the chapter last year and found them full. On August 14, Dave Ramirez, John Forgy, Dale Dickinson and son Dale Jr., Doug and I were able to complete the hole on R3, set the tank in the ground, and secure the top. We also set the uprights and were able to remove all the tools we had on the site.

On August 17, I went with biologist Pete Johnson and checked several old nonfunctioning guzzlers in the Wrightwood area the U.S. Forestry is going to upgrade to the Nevada style guzzler, with our chapter as consultants on the project. On August 20, I met Joel Tureaud, Christine Tureaud, Dale Ramirez, and John Forgy at the lockup and loaded the crosspieces, gutters, and apron material onto the rental truck in preparation for the next day.

On August 21, I met up with Joel Tureaud, Christine Tureaud, Gerard Orban, and Guy Kuhn, a Trails Club Volunteer who is interested in what this chapter does. Doug Appel, Dave Ramirez, and Troy Saunden, another nonmember interested in the chapter's habitat projects, went up earlier to clear a few obstructions on the road before meeting us at the first guzzler site. We unloaded the material for R1 and R2 at the R1 site since we did not have enough people to take the material to both sites.



While we were unloading material at the first site, Doug and Troy went on ahead to secure the cable on R3 in preparation for the material being carried down to the site by the cable. We then proceeded to convoy up the road to R1 to dig the hole for the tank and, hopefully, get the tank in the ground.

The work proceeded slowly since there were a lot of rocks. It was hard wrestling them out of the ground. The operation went pretty smoothly with only one small problem; and all the crosspieces, apron material, and gutter were set on site. The parabolic guzzler was lifted up the hill on the cable and put on the truck to be taken back to the main gate for drop-off.

We persevered and were able to get the hole dug out and the tank in the ground. The parabolic on R1 was not pulled and put on the truck. When we tried to pull it out, we discovered it was covered in red ants. Hopefully we can get it out next time.

These parabolic guzzlers, along with others that will be picked up by Bill and Louis Pickens for the Boy Scouts, will be relocated to the Experimental Forest to replace old ones that were burned out in the Williams fire. They will be reinstalled as an Eagle Scout project.

-- Submitted by Robert Armijo, SGVQU Habitat Chairman