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Published: Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Forestry management plan is a bad idea, councilman says

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Council will address the matter at its next meeting.

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

GIRARD — A city councilman who has researched a plan to harvest trees on city property says the plan is a bad idea and he is looking for concerned citizens to speak up.

The forestry management plan calls for harvesting of about 20 acres between Tod Memorial Park and Girard Cemetery and an undetermined number of acres at the lake property immediately.

Councilman Mike Costarella said the harvesting will bring in about $30,000.

Once the immediate harvesting has taken place, the plan calls for maintenance and upkeep of the timber of wooded areas through 2015 before any more harvesting is to take place. The upkeep will be done in-house and cost the city little money.

Not worth the money

Under the plan, between 2015 and 2017 the city will harvest a total of 162 acres at the Upper Girard Lake property and Liberty Memorial Park.

Council, at a meeting last week, was set to vote on approval of the forestry management plan to handle the property owned by the city until the vote was postponed at Costarella's request.

Costarella has toured the areas to be harvested and is now convinced that it is a bad idea. He and Councilman Dan Moadus walked through the area to be harvested in Todd Memorial Park.

"This is just not something we should be doing," he said. "There is only one reason why we should even consider doing this — the money. It's not worth it."

Costarella has put together a list detailing why the plan is wrong for the city:

It will not focus on sick trees because they aren't worth anything on the market.

It will not address downed wood.

Pittsburgh Avenue access is not feasible.

Coming in through Tod Park soccer field is too wet.

There is potential for a landslide.

There is potential for bad press coverage.

The branches created by trimming the logs will not be cleaned up.

If the dam needs to be breached, all of the downed wood might cause a huge log jam at the bridge on U.S. Route 422 during a flood.

When the big trees fall, they take a ton of little trees down around them as well.

There is a safety risk because of the proximity of the park.

Mayor's view

Mayor James Melfi agrees the plan should not be considered for financial gain. He said it should be approved because it will address forestry management in a professional way.

He said a tree harvesting in the city by the same company responsible for creating the plan in question was a huge success.

"This plan was created with a vote of council, and we did have great success with our first tree harvest," he said. "This plan was adopted with the preservation of our forestry area in mind. All of that is taken into account. You need to do this to protect the forest that is there."

jgoodwin@vindy.com

Tuesday, October 17, 2006