Craig Parks and Recreation director Dave Pike knew one thing from painful experience: Never cut down treeseven disease-riddled widowmakers — without first issuing a warning. In 2000, when 20 dead and dying cottonwood trees needed to be removed from a city park, Pike and his staff discussed breaking the news to a community that loves its trees. Then staffer Mike Shelton suggested carving the trees instead of mulching them. Claire Martin, The Denver Post
Q: And that’s how the Whittle the Wood Rendezvous got started?
A: Pretty much. Actually, Mike suggested hiring someone to carve the trees. We all thought that’d be cool, but we didn’t have the money. So I said why don’t we have a competition?
Q: How’d you come up with that?
A: I’d heard of a woodcarving competition in Breckenridge. I called those folks to see how they went about getting their carvers, and they gave me a bunch of names. Since then, they’ve quit the wood- carving and got into ice sculptures.
Q: So precedent existed?
A: Come to find out, it wasn’t a new idea to have a carving competition — there were several throughout the United States — but none on trees that had been cut down.
Q: Were the first year’s trees cut down?
A: No. We cut the rest of the tree and left about 20 stumps. That first year, we had more trees than carvers.
Q: How many carvers did you have?
A: Seven.
Q: How many of them have come back to compete in all 11 rendezvous matches?
A: Only one: Chainsaw Mama. Her real name is Fay Braaten. She’s from Loveland.
Q: Do her carvings follow a theme?
A: Her style back then was eagles. Eagles and animals — horses, birds.
Q: Bears? Didn’t all those roadside stands with chain saw- carved bears start turning up about 11 years ago when the Rendezvous started?
A: A lot of the carvers we got in touch with that first year were just those kind of folks, starting to get off the ground with those businesses with carved bears. One of the carvers was called The Bear Guy. He’s still carving bears. Bears seem to be one of the first animals you learn to carve. They’re pretty easy to do. A bear really has only three or four initial cuts. Then you do the finish work, and voila! You have a bear standing on its hind legs!
Q: Have you carved a lot of bears?
A: Well, no. I’ve made a couple attempts, and I don’t think I’d make it into the competition. It’s harder than it looks, let’s put it that way.
