Residents criticize tree removal plan

SANDPOINT — A group of homeowners in a small Oden Bay neighborhood are up in arms about county road work they say is destroying the community by removing a number of historic trees and bushes.

Oden Bay resident Christine Holbert said county workers began removing trees and bushes without warning on an unpaved stretch of Sunnyside road late last week.

“They started down at Oden Hall and they brought in these huge machines,” she said. “They didn’t say a word to anyone — none of the neighbors — and they just started hacking down trees and bushes, and they’re hundred-year-old trees and bushes.”

Holbert chained herself to a group of the trees on Monday to keep workers from cutting them down, but the stay of execution could be short-lived. Bonner County commissioners will listen to pleas from the neighbors during today’s commission meeting, and Holbert hopes to dissuade the country from continuing the project. In addition to aesthetic reasons for keeping the vegetation, Holbert said a number of animals, including two pairs of bald eagles and a pair of golden eagles, call the area home.

“I understand all about the county’s right of way and utility easements and that they have the right to do everything, and I agree with that,” she said. “But I wish, in this case, because of environmental and historical issues, that they would be a little more sensitive to the neighborhood.”

Commissioner Joe Young said the work is part of a normal maintenance schedule to remove vegetation from the county’s right of way. If left unattended, Young said the trees can damage the road and impair the vision of drivers.

“It’s just regular maintenance,” he said. “They do all the county roads and this road is at the point where they need to do some thinning and clearing and ditching. Hopefully next year, depending on funding, that was one of the roads they did want to do some work on, so they’ve got to get some work done this year if they want to pave next year.”

Young also denied a claim that workers tore down a homeowner’s fence while removing the vegetation. He said workers removed an old barb wire fence from a ditch, but did not touch anyone’s property.

Young said he is happy to hear from the neighbors during today’s meeting, but because the item is not on the agenda, he said the commission will not rule on the matter.

“It’s not an agendized item so they’ll just tell us what their concern is and I’ll say, ‘Thank you,’ and that’s it,” he said.

The commission will meet today at 8:45 a.m. at the Bonner County Administration building, suite 308.