The Helena National Forest removed hazardous trees with explosives. Today the blasting crew removed 37 trees in a successful blast.

The blast team starts out by taping the explosives together, then they use cellophane wrap to secure the explosives to the tree a couple feet off the ground. Once the explosives are attached to the tree the team puts a detonation cord in and they tie the whole series of trees together.

After the area is cleared the explosives are detonated. Bob Beckley is a member of the blast team, he says using explosives is a safe option to sawyering because everyone backs up 500 feet.

"Even though we have very experienced sawyers and contractors that do this type of work, there are some trees that are so dangerous, pose such risk, that we don't want to put a sawyer or a piece of mechanized equipment underneath it" said Beckley.

The crew says blasting is the best method when it is difficult to get to a tree on unsolid ground with a chainsaw.