KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
More land is being cleared atop Signal Hill to make way for the new Kodiak public library. Land is being cleared now to the south of the old barn on the site, with several large spruce marked for falling.
In addition to dozens of dump truck loads of spruce boughs being hauled from the site, numerous flatbed trailers of logs were removed in the past few days. City Manager Aimee Kniaziowski says those are all trees that had previously been cut down.
She said in an e-mail Wednesday that the additional trees marked for chopping down are defective or diseased and pose a hazard to the barn or the new library. Others, she wrote will be taken down to make way for utility work.
She adds that there was an extensive survey of the trees on the lot, the highest point on Signal Hill, and the city is retaining all the healthy trees it can.
In addition, many of the seedlings and saplings on the lot have been carefully dug up and given to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for re-planting.
It’s the latest in an on-going deforestation of Signal Hill. First trees were cleared for the new swimming pool and the hillside next to it. Then this year trees were cut down on Upper Mill Bay Road to create additional parking at the high school. The spruce trees in front of the high school will likely have to come down to make way for the building’s expansion, which is scheduled for next year.
