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A request was submitted by Dusty Rhodes (with pictures) to the City of San Bernardino website just over a week ago to repair ben Canyon Road. The land belongs to the DWR, but the City of S.B. is responsible for the access easement. They make take some time in getting to the repairs since they know we have an alternate entry route, it might have priority if it were the only access point. I would ask everyone to be patient, the City and County are in a state of emergency since the heavy rains that occurred, there is a large amount of road work they have to get to all over the area.
As far as the Gophers go, I’m not declaring victory just yet but we are FAR better off than we have been in the past.
– We hired a professional Pest-Control company, Gopher Champs. the have made 3 trips to the site and have one more visit on the contract in about 2 weeks.
– The overall population has been decimated. When I was at AJX on Saturday (17 FEB), I found only about 10 fresh signs of Gopher activity. For comparison, In January before the first treatment by Gopher Champs, there were over 200 tunnel mounds on the LZ, some almost knee high.
– We’ve knocked back the population before the breeding season, so hopefully it will be easier to manage the issue going forward. No one can expect that we got every single rodent or that they won’t eventually come back, so maintenance is important. We are planning to use snare traps that don’t require digging big holes to place traps into the tunnels. We can also use the Gopher Blaster, which we now own two copies of in case one malfunctions.
– I’ve heard the concerns of some members concerning the use of poison baits which is the method employed by the professionals to get this problem under control. I understand that people are concerned about Pets and local wildlife. The poisons are underground, and they are not the type of bait that any animal besides ground-burrowing pests are attached to. So far I haven’t seen any evidence of any animal trying to dig up and consume the baits from the surface, so there shouldn’t be any dead wildlife laying around or any Pets harmed. I hired professionals for a reason, they know what they are doing and they know the potential dangers (if any) of the products they deploy. The ground is NOT ‘poisoned’.
– Some of the comments about the poisons used are honest concerns, and I’ve responded to them. Some of them comments about the poisons are straight up snide remarks, so to those folks I will say that I expect you to be the first people to volunteer to come out to the site early in the morning to check traps, and then back in the evening to set them. Also, if you want to go ahead and skip a flying day, you are welcome to hitch up the Gopher Blaster and pop some tunnels… I’m more than happy to show you how to use it. I mean, since we vastly reduced the population of gophers then the maintenance shouldn’t be a big deal, right? I drive 2 hours each way to get to AJX and I’ve been on-site almost every single weekend (flying or not) to do site work. How far do YOU have to drive and how much time are YOU willing to give to the Club?
The picture in the first post should do most of the talking, but for anyone interested here are a few more details of how we got here, where we are, and what is next:
– The general health of the grass has dramatically improved. The amount of rainfall we have gotten this winter along with the cooler temps is definitely a contributing factor, but we have put in considerable work and cost starting back in December up until now to ensure that this healthy turf ‘sticks’.
– The broadleaf weed concentration is relatively low. There is still a good bit of clover but that isn’t a bad thing. The dormant grass (gold & brown color) is dramatically yielding to rich green. The fertilizer applied in December is a time-release deal and is keeping everything healthy. We shouldn’t have to fertilize again until the Fall of 2024, but there are some additives that we will probably deploy later in the Spring.
– The ‘additives’ are a post-emergent fertilizer that was donated by Site-One Landscape Supply. We don’t have enough of it to use it on the entire LZ but we will deploy it in areas that appear to need it the most. We also have a spray called ‘Moisture Manager’, this is a product that helps the grass retain it’s water absorption to keep it healthy in the very hot summer months.
Overall, we are looking really good. The new seed should germinate and sprout from late March through May so our green level plus turf density will increase more. The nutrients we have added along with the spike-aeration should help keep the grass greener, longer. I can’t promise that we won’t get singed in the summer, but I firmly believe we won’t be landing on dirt patches in the summer heat.
Bille,
If you believe that ineptitude is the reason that Gracie isn’t working at full power (she is running, but has low power), then please go find out who cross-threaded the #3 cylinder fuel line fitting to the fuel pump. You can read them riot act for ineptitude, while you are at it please talk to the City of San Bernadino for their ineptitude because the easement on Ben Canyon Road is their responsibility, not the Club’s. The CSS has bore the effort and expense of repairing that road and parts of the Marshall Road (2N40 also known as Cloudland Truck Trail) for many. many years while that actual responsibility lies with the City of S.B. down-mountain and the dept. of Ag Forestry Division up-mountain. (Just so you know, the Forestry Engineers just re-graded N240 before the rains hit, so they are actually helping). So should the club continue to shell-out thousands of $$ each year maintaining a very old tractor that has 6500 hours on it? Or do you think maybe we should engage the parts of local and federal government to do what our tax dollars pay for?
FYI, a request, with pictures, was submitted over a week ago to the City of S.B. website to repair Ben Canyon Road. I’m sorry that some people may feel inconvenienced by having to drive into AJX the back way via Sweetwater Canyon Rd, but there was actually a natural disaster that occurred recently with a very high level of rain-fall in a short period of time, so the City of S.B. might need some time to get to us with all the road repair that is required all over the city and county.
As for Gracie, the fuel line has been ordered but the high-pressure fuel pump needs to be rebuilt and that will cost $1300 in addition to my volunteer time to remove the pump, drive it to Fontana, pick it up later, and then reinstall it. Please feel free to make a donation on the CSS website to help offset the cost of these repairs. Better yet, if you feel so inclined please volunteer some time to remove the fuel pump or help reinstall it.
December 17, 2023 at 9:11 AM in reply to: “Rock & Rake” Volunteer Event, December 16th & 17th, 2023 #19379FYI… Today is Sunday 17 DEC, and we are cancelling the work on site today. Its way too windy to throw grass seed (gusting 25 North at the LZ). Also, our seed thrower rental delivery was delayed and won’t arrive until Monday anyway.
The last thing lest is to throw the seed and then drive the roller over it. We only need a handful of people to help, just to move cones on the LZ for lay lines. All that’s left is pretty easy, just driving the Gator and UTV… then we sit back and watch the grass grow.
The BOD has considered this issue in the past and discussed it again due to events that have occurred in the past 2 years. I think anyone would agree that it makes complete sense to have that separation of function. Unfortunately, however, there is a limited of pool of dedicated pilots who are willing to volunteer their time to both the work of the BOD and the physical work that the site requires to be maintained. The policy in the past has not been to restrict BOD candidacy to those who operate flight instruction or other services, because of people like Rob Mackenzie who have been critical assets to both the club and the sport in their roles as club founders, BOD members, and Instructors for many, many years.
As of now the BOD feels that changing this precedent would not necessarily be beneficial and could potentially sow more discontent in the membership. The Club’s By-Laws already have rules & policy in-place regarding negative behaviors by any general member or even BOD positions, rules that no one has taken any pleasure in exercising recently .
Also, noteworthy, the previous BOD attempted a last minute Ballot Measure near the very of their term in early 2023, an initiative that would have been very detrimental to the club if successful, which is a major contributing factor to why the current BOD was elected to the current term in the first place. We feel that it would be in poor taste to press a controversial ballot measure prior to an election.
I would hope that the membership is able to recognize which individuals who are running for a BOD seat do in fact have commercial interest in the club, and they consider the actions, behavior, and past performance of those candidates when voting.
We are still in need of donations! The project budget is still within original estimates, right now we are looking at $5800 for all the materials and rentals so far. What we really need help with to keep this project from pushing up to $8K is donations that will fund the leveling mix, a 50 mix of sand and topsoil. The cost is $1240 per truckload (25 tons) and we’d like to get two truckloads.
We will use the Top-Dresser to spread this across the LZ to fill and level the bad spots. This isn’t enough leveling mix to make it into a putting-green level surface, but it will really help even out the worst areas of damage caused by gopher tunnel damage!
We have more than 300 members in the club, $8 a piece will get this done! $20 from everyone would give us enough to keep leveling through the winter. $40 each would give us enough to get the Gopher Smoker, buy heaps of leveling mix, and also look at installing a central automatic liquid fertilizer system that dispenses from the irrigation sprinklers!
LETS GOOOOO!!!!
Ok everyone, it’s game on.
The equipment rental is set for the weekend of 16 & 17 December. We will be using the Core Aerator, an Over-Seeder, and a Top-Dresser. These three machines will be towed by a Kubota Tractor. The total rental cost is $2800 including the sales tax and delivery fee. We can’t use Gracie for this job, she is too big and too heavy. The Kubota tractor included in this rental is a mid-size tractor and has turf tires that won’t damage the LZ.
Here are some video links for the machines we are using:
Top-Dresser (This will spread Fertilizer & Leveling mix)
Saturday, December 2nd, Tim Ward will be at the LZ to give a tutorial on the Gopher Blaster. Start time will be noon.
After that, I will help anyone else who wants to learn on any occasion when we are gopher hunting. We expect to do this regularly throughout the winter. If we get the population under control now then it won’t get out of control when they pup in the spring.
Kind of continuing the gopher issue, but for other reasons as well, the sand and topsoil we are purchasing is going to be used to level the worst parts of the LZ. Don’t worry, we won’t have to look at or land on a ‘dirt’ LZ while waiting for the grass to grow. We are going to spot fill the worst parts and it will be rolled and raked below the grass level. It will be noticeable when we first start in an area, but hopefully by the time spring flying is in full swing the work will be done and grass will fully established in all of the repaired areas.
So, as I mentioned before the gophers are making the problem worse every season. Besides the potential for someone to roll an ankle or trip upon landing, the un-even ground and ruts in the LZ make the job of mowing a real kidney-punch experience. This causes the mower blades to cut un-evenly and also dulls them out faster.
The loads of topsoil and sand will be mixed 50/50, and are basically $750 per truckload but the delivery fee pushes it up to almost double that. One load of each will get us started but the amount of cubic yards of material to cover our entire LZ with just 1 inch is pretty staggering, its anise we just have to keep tapping away at and paying attention to every season.
So let’s talk about the gophers real quick. Owen and I have been purchasing off-the-shelf smoke bombs and smoking out as many gopher holes as possible. So far we have deployed roughly 40 smoke bombs and another 48 will be lit off on Wednesday, 22 NOV. We can’t be certain at exactly how effective these are but we just keep treating as many tunnels as we can and then monitor how many fresh dirt mounds we find between every trip. Our goal is to try to reduce the rodent population as much as possible before they breed in the spring.
The Gopher X is supposed to be a far more effective method. I’ve included a video below of its operation if you are curious. According to some local experts, this is the most effective machine used by Farmers and Golf courses in the inland valleys. I will say that this is a nice-to-have machine, it basically comes third in order of importance to what I mentioned in the post above. That said, I think we all see the damage that is being done to the LZ, some of the depressions and ruts that are created by collapsing tunnels are deep enough for a pilot to be injured by upon landing. So the mission is clear, the gophers have to go!
*** Update on the LZ situation ***
The Club has purchased the first round of supplies which consists of a back-pack sprayer and the herbicides for weed control. Owen Morse and I spent some time spraying the weeds all across the LZ as well putting smoke bombs in the gopher tunnels (more on the gophers in a minute).
The next step if use a machine that will aerate the soil (big 6 inch spikes), followed by a second machine that evenly spreads the grass seed and brushes it down into the holes created by the aerator. I haven’t gotten the official quote from the rental company yet but I expect the cost to be in the ballpark of $2500 for a weekend rental. We expect to do this on 9 & 10 December or 16-17 December as the back-up.
Jana asked me to include more specifics on what we need help with in terms of the fundraiser so I’ll put some more costs down here that I have been quoted. The BOD agrees the expenses are necessary for LZ maintenance, so the costs for the seed, fertilizer, herbicide, sprayer, etc is coming from the Club’s operating costs. This will total about $3000 when all is said and done. We are doing the special project fundraiser to off-set the costs of the more expensive costs that will likely not be recurring. Right now, they are as follows:
– Renting the Agri-vator (aerator machine) and Seed machine: Est $2500
– Leveling Sand and Topsoil (2 trucks), actual quote is $ 2500
– Burrow X, gopher smoke machine is $2500
When a member is clearly and actively behaving in a manner the not consistent with CSS policy or in violation of law (violence or the threat of violence), anyone present has the express right to document the incident via video, audio, or any other media and turn over that evidence to the Board of Directors. Period.
Bille,
Read the text of the letter, all of it. Stop focusing on the date in the top left which is the date the letter was prepared. The letter clearly states the terms of the suspension, you are just selectively ignoring it.
If you think there are grounds for any kind of lawsuit what so ever, you clearly have no idea how civil law works.
Bille,
Do NOT threaten me or this club. There is no grounds for any kind of lawsuit and it’s clear that you haven’t read the letter.
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