The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today, with Supervisor Rex Bohn absent, to approve an environmental impact report for the completion of the Humboldt Bay Trail that includes the removal of 219 eucalyptus trees along U.S. Highway 101.
But the board’s decision also included a provision to have county staff hire a certified arborist or two to conduct a risk assessment on the trees to determine if there’s a way to keep them and build the new trail without dramatically increasing maintenance costs or county liability.
Citing liability concerns due to detritus and falling branches from the 90-year-old trees, county staff had recommended removing all the trees north of Bracut to make way for completion trail project, a 4-mile stretch that would connect the trail to already constructed segments south of Arcata and north from Eureka.
At the board’s Aug. 21 meeting, staff will present a plan to hire arborists to offer the board another opinion. If the arborists are able to assess the trees and offer a viable alternative to removing the trees, the board could opt to alter the trail plan at a later date .
Trail construction is not slated to begin until 2021.
This article appears in Taken Away.
I don’t understand, is the liability different than it is for the roadway side of the trees? It seems like any wind would carry broken branches into the roadway. Has this happened? Have branches broken off the trees and hit a car?
-PDH
At one time the draft EIR said that there were 27 “commuter bicyclists” using highway 101. I suggested it would be cheaper to provide free daily limousine service for them. These “commuter” bicyclists want to travel as fast as they can. It is cute for Arcata to show drawings of the bicyclists riding by some parents with some young kids, but the speeding bicyclists are more of a liability than any far-between falling tree branches. One one bike path I designed down in L.A. a bicyclist hit and killed a woman. He petulantly told police ‘She got in my way”. -CW