The Ile Camera
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Tree removal program ready
By Cliff St. PierreSpecial to the Ile Camera
PUBLISHED: March 4, 2005
During the past three years, our community has been adversely affected by the emerald ash borer infestation.
Advertisement
Many trees have been cut down, and many others have yet to be removed. Attempts to save healthy trees using insecticides have been partially successful, but expensive.
The Greenways/Open Space Committee and the Grosse Ile Nature and Land Conservancy will co-sponsor an ash borer seminar in the second floor boardroom at Township Hall at 7 p.m. on April 7.
Jessica Simons, a natural resources specialist from the Southeast Michigan Conservation and Development Council, will review the latest status of this issue. A tree-removal program will be outlined.
Michigan recently established a program that allows for diseased trees to be removed from private property at a reduced cost through mass cuttings by pre-approved tree removal firms. The program would be coordinated by the local government, such as our township.
The removal costs would be paid by the township and then billed on a prorated basis to individual residents who agreed to participate in the program.
The costs stated in this proposal do not include stump removal. The Greenways Committee and township administration believe this program is very complex.
After reviewing this proposal, the Grosse Ile Open Space Committee concluded that we could eliminate the added administrative costs incurred by the township by asking residents to deal directly with the tree removal firms.
The committee would coordinate the program by determining the number of and location of trees to be cut down on private property.
The committee then will summarize the number of trees on each street and publish to homeowners. The list also will be forwarded to tree removal firms to provide them with the information to develop economical costs for removing and disposing of trees and the minimum number of trees required to be removed at that cost.
The list of participating tree removal firms then will be published so that homeowners/ or groups of homeowners and contractors can then contact each other and enter into private agreements for services.
The township's effort is simply to facilitate communication between the homeowner and tree removal firms.
Cliff St. Pierre is the chairman of the Grosse Ile Greenways/Open Space Committee.
Your help is needed
Grosse Ile residents can help the Open Space Committee in determining the number and location of diseased trees by providing your name, street address, number of diseased trees you would like to have removed in your yard and the number of trees to be removed in your front yard. Information is required by March 31.
There are two ways to provide this information to us.
On the Internet:
• Determine the number of diseased trees in your back and front yard.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
TOP JOBS
