NIC and the city of Coeur d’Alene are exploring their options in the wake of an order by the U.S Army Corp. of Engineers (USACE) to remove all trees along Rosenberry Drive.
The USACE issued the order in October, 2010 to remove roughly 300 ponderosa pine trees and their root systems from both sides of Rosenberry Drive, also known as the Dike Road. The timeline given for compliance was two years.
The city owns the street, while NIC owns the property on both sides.
Both the city and the college have stated that removing the roots would undermine the structural integrity of the dike and require reconstruction of both the road and the dike itself.
“At this time there has been no estimate as to what it would cost to comply with the order,” said Kim Harrington, assistant project manager of the city’s stormwater management program.
The bulk of expenses would be born by the city, as they originally sponsored construction of the dike.
The USACE contracted engineers at Jones & Stokes of Seattle, Washington to conduct a study without the input of any arborists, said Garry Stark, NIC’s assistant director of facilities operations.
Stark said the USACE told NIC it could apply for a permit for each individual tree.
The process would require digging into the banks alongside existing root systems to ascertain root locations. Stark said doing this would also destabilize the dike.
Without USACE compliance , all properties protected by the dike would lose certification by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), forcing owners to buy flood insurance.
“The cost would be so expensive NIC wouldn’t be able to build on the mill site,” Stark said.
Insurance requirements would also affect Fort Grounds homeowners. John Bruning, city council member and Fort Grounds resident, said his cost would be $2,500 a year. He said the ability of homeowners to sell their property would be affected.
Realtor Tom Torgerson, who handles government affairs for the Coeur d’Alene Association of Realtors, spoke in opposition to the order at the organization’s last meeting.
“No ‘emotional plea’ will make any difference,” he said. “It needs to be a science-based approach to either prove the trees stabilize or are a neutral effect on the levee. The Corps. is required to operate with sound science and practices and they have no proof that trees negatively impact dikes.”
Bruning was a guest speaker at a recent Kootenai Environmental Alliance (KEA) meeting. KEA opposes tree removal for aesthetic and environmental reasons. They support a plan being considered to circumvent the USACE by hiring an independent engineering company to certify the levee directly to FEMA. Bruning said the cost of such a study would be $500,000.
“Coeur d’ Alene has earned the Tree City USA designation for many years. That means something. It means we value trees,” Bruning said. “These particular trees have special value and meaning for all of Coeur d’ Alene’s residents and we, as elected officials, have an obligation to protect them.”
Bruning said the binder-thick USACE study is not based on a 100-year plan, in which length of time a flood is predicted, but a 500-year plan, in which length of time a catastrophic event is predicted.
Such an event would uproot trees and the dike’s stability would dissolve.
Bruning will be leading an ad hoc committee of citizens appointed by the city council to address this issue. NIC will be represented on the committee by Stark.
Ron Edinger, senior city councilman and former mayor, said, “I am totally against the cutting of the trees – I think it is the wrong thing to do.”
Julie Middesworth, environmental science teacher at NIC, said that USACE has issued similar orders across the nation after the record-breaking Mississippi River flood last spring. In California, three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in response to similar orders the USACE issued for the Sacramento River levee. City Attorney Mike Gridley said he is communicating with them on this action.
Coeur d’Alene’s last flood occurred in 1933. At that time, the lake level reached 2,140 feet above the normal summer level of 2,128 feet. The dike was constructed in 1941 by the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers and protects against a lake level of up to 2,147 feet.
The U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers (USACE), in addition to issuing the order to cut down hundreds of trees along Rosenberry Drive, have also noted a multitude of other related issues in their report, which affects both NIC and the city of Coeur d’Alene.
There are over a hundred minor issues which Garry Stark, NIC’s assistant director of facilities operations, said the college is addressing item by item.
Some of these items to be addressed, such as specific areas of surficial corrosion in the seawall, are noted but marked as acceptable. Other items, such as sediment in post holes, are rated as unacceptable.
In a number of cases, the USACE simply wants evidence of permits or removal of noted items.
This includes a set of wooden stairs constructed into the embankment, which was built by the Boy Scouts years ago.
Some of the items noted include logs, trash and other debris, which they recommend removing and re-establishing sod that has been worn down by geese.
Stark said they are finding that they do not have permits for many items such as benches, signs and trash cans, but did not feel it would be a big problem to remedy that.
