Aerial Mulching

Four Mile Fire burn zone mulching by helicopter. Picking up 1-4 tons of hay mulch at a time, ferrying it to denuded hillsides and dropping to stave off erosion when/if the spring rains come. Randy and Clint, crack pilots navigate canyon crosswinds, power lines and FAA guidelines NOT to fly over houses with their cargo dangling thirty feet below them. Here a Vietnam era Huey is gassed up to begin another series of drops.

R. Mutt

The Four Mile Fire in Boulder; September 6, 2010. One hundred sixty-nine homes burnt to the ground, over 6,100 acres of forest incinerated. Tonight we watched a performance by Nathan Wheeler, who's family lost their home in the fire, that attempted to come to terms with and understand the physical and emotional devastation of irretrievable dispossession.  Part of the musical performance was conducted on "instruments" made from the charred and melted remnants of their house and life- quite touching. 

This particular piece could have been signed "R.Mutt" or Alexander Calder.