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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Audubon Society Will Fight Corps Over Cottonwoods Cutting Due To Resume Monday Along St. Joe River Levee

Associated Press

The Audubon Society vowed to go to court to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from cutting down remaining cottonwood trees on a levee along the St. Joe River near St. Maries.

The Audubon Society was instrumental in stopping the project last spring because it threatened bald eagle habitat, but not before cottonwoods along several miles of the levee system were cleared.

Cutting is scheduled to resume Monday with about 160 trees marked for removal. The Corps of Engineers contends the trees destabilize the dike. But Scott Reed, an attorney for the Audubon Society, said there is no need to remove the cottonwoods.

“In successive 100-year floods, there is no evidence of failure of the dike related to cottonwood trees,” Reed said.

Susan Weller, the Audubon Society’s state council president, conceded the levee was breached two years in a row. However, she said, “It breached where there weren’t trees.”

She blamed Corps of Engineers officials on the East Coast for insisting the trees should be cut.

“It’s people living in an ivory tower making arbitrary rules without looking at it on a case-by-case basis,” Weller said. “The St. Joe is a free-flowing river, not a flood-control canal. People who live on the river don’t want the trees cut.”

Benewah County has received emergency funding from the federal Economic Development Agency to hire a contractor to remove the trees. County Commission Chairman Jack Buell said the county is only doing what the Corps of Engineers requires.

Paul Komoroske, chief of emergency management with the Corps of Engineers in Seattle, said crews would try to leave as many trees as possible. But any tree on the dike more than 4 inches in diameter will be cut, he said.

“Our regulations call for cutting of trees for the safety of people living behind the levee,” Komoroske said. “I realize there are some environmental concerns, but I would say the levee is the most important thing.”

He said cottonwoods contributed to the failure of a dike near Bonners Ferry during heavy spring runoff.

“You can look up and down the bank there where you have the levee failure and you see all the big cottonwoods leaning down and pulling the bank apart.”

Jim Colla of the Idaho Department of Lands said the project does not meet state forest practices standards, but it may be out of the state’s hands.

Rick Donaldson of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said his agency cannot halt the project because the levee work is considered an emergency situation.

“We’re trying to make recommendations to minimize effects to eagles,” Donaldson said. “There’s nothing holding them up from our angle as far as proceeding with the work.”