News

We completed almost three weeks of intensive forestry restoration work today. This was mostly on the land north of Black Butte Creek. You will note quite the radical transformation in some areas when you walk around the property. The work we are doing will improve wildlife habitat, restore the density of trees to something more appropriate to our dry location and make our land less vulnerable to fire. Thanks to everyone who helped out on this massive effort! We’ll be back at it later in the year and also be doing some activities in support of this work at our Spring Work Party.

The new documentary on our Forest Restoration Project at Black Butte, filmed and edited by Kevin Citta, can be seen on our BBCRC You Tube channel at “www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOdTGF1ADTE“.

Added a page in the Images section with links to BBCRC-related Videos.

New BBCRC publications now available: We now have copies of Baltimore Red’s new booklet “Boxcar Sing-Along” (a compilation of railroad, labor, and traveling songs) available on site for $10. As well as Brakeshoe’s “Speaking of Trains” for $5 (also available by mailorder through the Gloo Factory or Microcosm Press).

Thanks to everyone who came and participated in Dunsmuir Railroad Days and the ‘Bo-Lympics! Our parade entry was awarded a first place prize for best Railroad-themed entry by the Dunsmuir RR Days committee judges! The ‘Bo-Lympics held on Sunday, June 9th was very successful. Cody, Grizelda and Brandon 88 won the Gold, Silver and Broze medals respectively. We will be posting photos and links to videos of the events shortly.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in our very successful Spring work and music party. In just a couple of days a huge amount of work was accomplished. We moved ahead on our office expansion, renovated the garden and greenhouse and began Spring planting, further restored our PFE reefer car by welding on replacement rungs for an exterior ladder that had been cut off years ago, build a burly new fence along the cabooses (using donated railroad ties and wood milled right on our land), stocked up the firewood supply, refurbished our stable of loaner bicycles, rebuilt and improved hiking trails, hauled out and crunched up dead brush and, using a rented “forestry masticator” unit, made fire breaks and cleared dead brush from several acres of land as part of our forestry restoration activities. We had a great crew of volunteers helping out, including with food donations and cooking up tasty meals for everyone. We’d also like to thank the musicians who put on the excellent boxcar music show on Saturday night including New Happiness, The Dirty Pluckers, Upside Drown, and St. Lorena.

We have a new order in of BBCRC t-shirts [shown below], including ladies cut styles, available now in our boxcar. XL, L, M and S sizes in green, grey and black. We’d prefer you stop by and pick out the one you want when you are here — $10+. Double that if we gotta mail you one. Thanks to our friend and BBCRC supporter “Ozol Kid” at East Bay Screenprinting (www.eastbayscreenprint.com) for again giving us a good deal on high-quality t-shirts and printing! Also available on site Slingshot 2013 organizer calendars as well as our union-made BBCRC patches and stickers.

The BBCRC would like to thank everyone who came and participated in our Fall Music and Work Party last weekend. We had over 60 attendees and everyone was really into helping out! We accomplished a tremendous amount of forest restoration work, made progress on our office/caretaker building expansion, made improvements to our boxcars and cabooses, rebuilt a trailer, prepped the garden for winter, and completed a bunch of other projects. Thanks especially to Claude (our “crumb-boss”) who oversaw the kitchen and everyone else who helped coordinate meals and contribute food. Also thanks to the “Bucket Brigade”, Robbie and all the others who played music in the boxcar on Saturday night.

Restructured the Great Northern X746/McCloud River #34 caboose.

According to news reports, a “federal grant has been approved to fund trackage improvements to the Siskiyou Line between Black Butte and Medford, allowing the line to reopen”. The timing on this is not clear but it seems likely for sometime in 2013.