WHERE WILL THE EAGLES PERCH?

DESIGNATED A SCENIC BYWAY IN 2013...

...BUT IT'S NOT AS SCENIC NOW

AND WHERE WILL THE EAGLES PERCH?

Wednesday, 7:45 AM.  31 degrees F at the Ferry Dock, 28 on the back porch.  Wind light and variable at ground level, from the NW and stronger at higher altitude.  The sky was mostly cloudy earlier but is clear now.  The humidity is 68% and the barometer is trending downward, and now stands at 30.33".  The maple sap should flow well today.
   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 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 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?"