City halts tree-cutting at cemetery

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Clearing began without necessary permits, planning officials say.

Work on a Port Blakely Cemetery expansion was halted Friday after city staff discovered trees had been cleared without proper permits, among other violations.

The planning department is also investigating whether some trees were logged in a 20-foot wide no-cut buffer zone lining the perimeter of the 2.7-acre expansion site.

The Port Blakely Cemetary Board, a nonprofit organization that manages the property, failed to obtain a state Department of Natural Resources forest practice permit, which regulates the harvesting of timber.

The board also failed to give the city notice just before clearing trees, improperly tagged and marked the property and spread fill dirt without a permit, according to planning staff.

The city is investigating how many trees may have been logged in the buffer zone, but staff believe the impact is minimal.

“There’s not a whole lot of trees in a 20-foot buffer,” said planner Steve Morse. “But there were no clear markers around the buffer, so there’s no way to verify right now.”

For remediation, the city could require the cemetery board to plant new trees in the buffer, according to planning staff.

Port Blakely Cemetary Board member Arnie Jackson said no trees were improperly logged.

“It’s no big crisis,” he said Monday. “It just slows us down until we get the paperwork we need. We’ve just got to get our ducks in a row.”

The board recently purchased the 2.7-acre forested property from IslandWood to nearly double the size of the existing cemetery. The expansion plans first were revealed and publicized in early 2005.

Established in late the 1800s, the cemetery initially served the families of workers employed at the Port Blakely Mill Company.

More than 1,210 people are buried at the 3-acre cemetery.

“There’s no room left,” Jackson said. “All the grave sites are sold or full and there’s so little room that we’re encroaching on the pathways.”

But the scope of the tree removal project has caused some concern among nearby residents.

“Huge trees are coming down,” said Old Mill Road resident Lisa Macchio. “There’s huge stumps, possibly in the 20-foot no-cut (area).”

Macchio took her concerns to the City Council during public comment at last week’s meeting.

Lee Rosenbaum, who logged the site, said trees were cleared in accordance with city rules allowing the removal of dead or dying trees.

“Almost every tree there was diseased and half there were dead,” said Rosenbaum, who owns Bainbridge Landscaping & Topsoil.

Jackson said the cemetery board had nothing to gain by clearing more trees than permitted.

“No money exchanged hands,” he said. “We let (Rosen­baum) take out trees and sell the trees.”

Rosen­baum said he plans to submit applications for the proper permits by Thursday.

“We’ll plant some trees and it should make it pretty,” he said.