ITD explains scenic byway tree removal

SANDPOINT — The removal of trees and brush along Highway 200 between Pack River Flats and Trestle Creek was done to improve safety, according to the Idaho Transportation Department.

The work was necessary to improve motorists’ sight distances on bends in the road and make it easier to spot crossing wildlife, said Jason Minzghor, a project development engineer for ITD in Coeur d’Alene.

In 2010, a toddler was killed and two others were injured when the sport utility vehicle they were in went off the road and overturned in the Pack River Delta. The driver reportedly told state police she swerved to avoid hitting an animal in the road.

Some trees on the north side of the highway were also removed because they were in danger of falling down because their root systems were being undermined by water runoff coming down from the Cabinet Mountains.

“In a matter of a couple of days, they went from vertical to leaning over the highway so we wanted to take then down on our own terms and not let them fall down and hurt somebody,” said Minzghor.

Yet more trees in the stretch of highway were removed because they were diseased or dying, Minzghor.

In 2007, two people on a motorcycle were killed when a large grand fir on the north side of the highway fell onto them east of the Trout Creek Road turnoff.  The tree snapped about 10 feet from the ground and showed obvious signs of decay.

The prevailing theory at the time of the accident suggested bark or fir engraver beetles weakened the tree and its collapse may have been hastened by a storm that passed through the area a few days before.

The right-of-way work occurred along the Pend Oreille Scenic Byway, a 33-mile stretch of highway which boasts postcard views of the Pack River Delta and Lake Pend Oreille. As a result, the work did not go unnoticed by passersby.

The tree-removal work was not announced and ITD officials in Bonner County were unresponsive to inquiries about the work, causing criticism and speculation to replace the silence.

Leading the pack of suspicions was that the trees were being taken down to accommodate a proposal to truck massive pieces of oil refinery equipment on Highway 200 en route to Great Falls, Mont.

But Minzghor disputes that notion.

“It’s merely trying to make it safer,” he said of the work. “It has nothing to down with megaloads or any kinds of shipments.”