SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

OLD WHITE PINE ON HWY. 13,..

MINDING ITS OWN BUSINESS FOR A CENTURY, NEVER HIT BY A VEHICLE...

MARKED FOR REMOVAL, ALONG WITH MANY OTHERS

Friday, d9:30 AM.  54 degrees F at the ferry dock, 52 on the back porch.  Wind NNE, light with stronger gusts.   The sky is clear except for some white  clouds on the southeastern horizon, the humidity 78%.  The barometer is still rising slightly, now at 30.32".  Tomorrow it will warm up a bit, with chances of rain Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Trying to get the lawn mowed.
   State Hwy. 13 has been under construction for most of the summer, often  down to one lane with flagman, etc., etc.  It is finally done, except for one last detail... cutting down all the trees anywhere near the roadway  Whether this is to provide better vision, or a runoff strip for vehicles, or to spend more money on mowing  roadsides is anybody's guess, but it seems to be a continuation of some obscure departmental policy evident previously, and the subject of the Almanac post of  July 18, 2015,  which I reprint below:
 

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, since 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 take down 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?"

   After the above was posted (and published in the local paper) I continued to look for answers, even asked our representative in the State House of Representatives to find me a state road department administrative rule book: no response. Now it has happened again, with a vengeance, and no roadside trees at all are left.  Whether any of this is necessary or makes any sense or is according to written specifications or is even legal I have no idea, and and there is evidently no way to find out.
   This is why so many people hate government; the administrative state that is run by unelected,  unaccountable  bureaucrats in offices far away.
   I am an educated, reasonable person, merely asking what is going on near my home;  and I will never get an answer.  
   Some things never change.