SOUTHWICK — Town officials have permission to take down three trees in the North Pond Conservation Area. They just don’t have the money to do it.
“I have no idea how we’re going to fund it,” Southwick Conservation Coordinator Sabrina Pooler said about the estimated $6,000 it will cost to drop the trees during the Conservation Commission’s June 17 meeting.
The commission voted to determine that the state Wetlands Protection Act does not bar the town from taking down the trees, which are considered a public safety hazard. The town has removed illegal rope swings from these trees several times, only to have individuals hang new ones soon after.
Southwick Police, acting on behalf of the Select Board, had applied for permission to remove the trees. The Conservation Commission agreed that the removal itself doesn’t violate state law, but will require that town officials submit a plan detailing how equipment will be transported to the site, and may approve or deny that plan.
The plan proposed is to leave the felled trees where they are, to provide a buffer that will allow native vegetation to naturally reestablish itself on the shore, which is vulnerable to erosion.
“The foot traffic won’t let anything grow. It’s completely bare,” Pooler said about the shoreline.
After Pooler said she didn’t know where the money will come from, commission member Dennis Clark asked her if it was possible for the town’s DPW to pay for the work. Public Works Director Randy Brown said on June 18 that the department’s tree budget for the year has already been spent.
Clark said that he didn’t “think conservation is going to pay for it or has the money to pay for it.” That was confirmed by commission member Norm Cheever.
Finance Committee Chair Joseph Deedy said getting the funds should be a simple process. If any town department has an unanticipated funding need, it only needs to request it from the Finance Committee, and money from a reserve account can be transferred to where it is needed.
Before the commission issued its ruling on the applicability of the Wetlands Protection Act, commission member Chris Pratt asked three questions.
“We should try to promote more safety over there, but is it really going to accomplish that?” he asked.
He asked if taking down the trees would just lead visitors to install illegal rope swings on trees farther from the shoreline, increasing the danger. And if that happens, he said, would the town seek to cut down even more trees?
“How many trees will we be cutting down and denude the whole shoreline?” he asked.
