In the past few weeks, 14 elm trees were taken down along the section of the Cap. City trail that runs alongside Eastwood Dr. Most of these trees were diseased. Other, healthy non-elm trees have been removed too. I'm not sure which city agency is doing what, but city forestry and engineering have both been involved.
Apparently the trees will not be replaced--the engineering department would like to have all the remaining trees cut down in order to reduce "maintenance" (of a thicket of scrub trees that look at least a couple decades old--I'm not sure why they care about maintenance now). The trees along this section of trail have made it a pleasant section to be on. The area around the trail is under the City of Madison's Engineering dept., as are the roads. But when trees are cut down along a road, they're replaced. Why shouldn't trees cut down alongside a multi-use path also be replaced? Can you imagine going down the SE path if there weren't trees on either side? Yuck. I'm going to ask the Alder Rummel, whose district this section of the Cap. City trail is in, if she would create/sponsor an ordinance that would require city engineering to replace trees along ANY type of traffic route, not just the streets (see section 10.10(2) in the city general ordinances). If you like this idea, I hope you'll contact Alder Rummel ([email protected] ) and let her know. It'd be nice for her to hear how (if) the presence of trees along the trail affects people who use the trail, not just the people who live next to the trail. The residents who've "lost" trees behind their yards are really upset and are organizing to meet with her soon, and also write to the mayor and the interim city engineer. Conversely, if you don't like the idea of the trees being replaced, I guess you'd want to let her know that, because the movement to have the trees replaced is a fairly upset/strong one. Thanks for reading and thinking about this! -Monica Harkey _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/
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