Storm Damage at Beaver Island State Park

The damage that the October 2006 snowstorm wreaked is still apparent in the trees of Beaver Island State Park. It has been thirteen months since that storm, but I will never forget the startling sight of tree limbs, overburdened by the weight of 24 inches of heavy snow, crashing to the street, onto telephone and electrical wires, onto cars and houses, and anywhere else that gravity took those tree limbs. Many trees had to be cut down after the storm because the damage was too great. Some of the damaged trees survived, although limbs were cut off from them. Those empty spots tell the story of that disastrous snow storm that occurred in autumn, well before the leaves would have changed color and fallen off the trees on their own.