PRESERVE OUR OLD GROWTH TREES

SIGN IN WASHBURN ON HWY. 13...

...DITTO,,.

...RESPONSE TO DESTRUCTION OF CENTURY-OLD TREES?

Sunday,  9:00 AM. 69 degrees at the ferry dock, 65 on the back porch.  Wind SW, light to moderate with occasional stronger gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity moderate at 72%.  the barometer is steady for now, at 29.75".  It will be a "perfect ten" day!
   A resident on Hwy. 13 in Washburn has erected these signs, I believe in response to the destruction of many century-old white pine trees last winter along Hwy. 13, between Washburn and Bayfield.
   I wrote an Almanac post entitled, "Where Will The Eagles Perch?" on March 18.  It was also modified and published as a letter to the editor in the Ashland Daily Press.  Perhaps it had an effect.

WHERE WILL THE EAGLES PERCH?

 I made a few phone calls yesterday concerning the old white pines that were taken down along State Hwy. 13 between the Sioux and Onion Rivers.   I called the Bayfield County Highway Department, snce they took down the trees.  A very polite superintendent called me back and explained that they were under a maintenance contract to the State Department of Transportation, and were only following the dictates of the State Superintendent for Bayfield, Ashland and Sawyer Counties, who was only following routine regulations for roadside maintenance.  In other words, no one actually accepted any personal responsibility for the decision.  ("I was just following orders" being the standard legal excuse for war crimes and other great transgressions).
   I am not a tree hugger that defies important safety or maintenance issues, but I think that the takedown of so many large old trees is a decision that should be very well thought out and overtly defensible, not simply explained away as some routine, rote procedure.
   Highway 13 between Ashland and Cornucopia was finally designated a State of Wisconsin Scenic Byway two years ago, after a twenty year effort.  The trees in question were a significant contribution to the scenery, even though, or rather because , they had some bare, broken and picturesque branches.  One old downed white pine, near the bridge over the Onion River, was a rather consistent perch for bald eagles fishing in the stream.  That certainly was scenic.
   I am not going to pursue the issue further with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, as dealing with that entity is about as productive as punching a whale.  But I do hope I have provoked a more cautious attitude towards the removal of scenic old trees.
   Perhaps in the future someone will ask first, "Where will the eagles perch?"