Submitted by
John Carr
The time is almost here for the phase one operation to begin. The contractor has been selected and the felling work should be completed by the end of November. This will mean the felling of 601 dead trees. The trees will be felled in place by hand (with chainsaws). The snags left standing will number 170 trees selected for their current wildlife use and/or activity. This will probably start this week and hopefully be done by Thanksgiving.
The contractor for phase two, invasive treatment has been selected and is expected to start this part of the job soon after the saw work is completed in phase one. This allows a large window for the planting phase in February and March of 2013.
What this means to the casual observer is that there will be chainsaws running on the site for two or three weeks. There should be no danger to the users of the greenway from this operation. There may be vehicles on the main trails to help get the sawyers across the ditches.
The second phase, which should start about the last week in November will also have some saws running to cut down the larger invasives. The largest of which are Chinaberry and Chinese Tallow. These 1210 trees will be felled and left, then stump treated, or just treated, and left for further observation. The activity will also address 1670 other plants. Over half of these plants are less than 6’ tall, but still present the same environmental danger as a larger plant. There may be similar vehicular activity for this phase also.
For the safety of the public as well as the workers, I would suggest that any visits to this area be on the marked, Blue, Red, and Yellow trails. There will be signs posted at each of the entrances to the area when activity is under way.
This is a big step in returning the area to the forest it was before. All of this work has been designed to supplement Mother Nature’s efforts to reestablish the Red Maples. I mention this because the area is pretty well loaded with small maples that are working their way back into this area.
Watch for the signs and vehicles while you continue to enjoy our greenway.
November 12, 2012 11:30 a.m.
Readers might be better informed re this project if they knew the dead trees were being removed for misguided “aesthetics” at the request of a few complaining, influential, citizens. (per a city official) Otherwise, there is absolutely no ecological justification to remove dead trees from a greenway since they provide natural shelter and foraging habitat for wildlife. Furthermore, natural processes of decay are rapidly felling the trees without costly intervention from humanity.