The forest restoration project has started and halted

Crews started planting trees for the project last week.  Its finally happened.  Monday morning they planted about 200 trees and prepped for some more.  We were in contact with our partners at the zoo to get materials hauled up the hill to the site on Wednesday, but something happened on that Tuesday that no one here in Duluth will forget anytime soon.  The sky opened up and unleashed an epic rain that, as I've been told, only happens once in 500 years.  As it happens, the stream which gives the project its name burst forth from its banks devastating every path up the hill.  If you think devastating is an exaggeration just look at this.

This used to be an ATV trail, now its an 8 foot deep 15 foot wide washout.

As you can guess by  the boardwalk and railing, you used to be able to walk onto this bridge.  There used to be a path there with lots of earth under it.  This is where all the water got out and its hard to tell by pictures but the second river created by this was almost as big as the regular one.

With obstacles like these it's obviously impossible to get any machinery up there and its not very feasible to carry thousands of pounds of fence up.  There are other ways up the hill but they are now all impassable with washouts.  I wish I would have budgeted for a helicopter.