Spokane7
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July 12, 2011
Army Corps wants CdA to cut down ‘dike road’ trees
“I can’t believe they would even think about removing these trees,” Daryl Rise said Tuesday as he walked with Cristy Hodgkins on the dike road at North Idaho College.
(Full-size photo)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is calling for the city of Coeur d’Alene to remove hundreds of trees from its levee, which separates North Idaho College and the Fort Grounds neighborhood from Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Rosenberry Drive, otherwise known as the “dike road,” draws thousands of people year-round as a place to park when headed to the college or the beach or events like Art on the Green. A section of North Idaho’s Centennial Trail also stretches along the road and is popular with walkers, joggers and bicyclists.
“I don’t think anybody in our community is going to be thrilled about removing 500 trees,” said Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem. “Obviously, we’re going to try to find a solution other than that.”
Bloem said city officials are reviewing the Army Corps report and looking for alternatives. However, she said, “When you get a mandate from the federal government, you have to consider it and do what’s necessary to get into compliance.”
The Army Corps’ report informed the city that hundreds of trees on the levy are too big and have to be removed because they are destabilizing the soil, said Charles Ifft, a program manager in the federal agency’s Seattle office. If the city declines to remove the trees, he said, it would jeopardize its right to federal assistance in case of a flood.
For the past decade, Ifft has inspected Coeur d’Alene’s levee himself and said he has always “exercised engineering judgment in allowing them (the trees) to stay. They’d always been there.” But, he said, “I was probably taking more of a risk than I should have by saying they could stay. I did not tell (the city) they had to be cut like we’re telling them now.”
Coeur d’Alene’s levee was built by the Army Corps in the 1940s and came with an agreement that it would be maintained according to the corps’ standards for safety and flood control, Ifft said.
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, Ifft said, the Army Corps increased scrutiny of levees nationwide. Last spring, the corps hired an independent contractor to perform a more in-depth inspection of the Coeur d’Alene levee. The contractor came back with a report requiring that all the trees on the dike need to go, Ifft said.
In the interim, Ifft said, the levee has been given a “minimally acceptable rating.” If the city doesn’t remove the trees within two years, it would lose its eligibility for federal assistance in the event of a flood.
“I feel for them,” he said. “I know it’s going to be a big deal.”
Officials at North Idaho College also are reviewing the report and plan to meet Friday with city officials to discuss it, said John Martin, NIC’s vice president for community relations.
“Obviously, we’re concerned if we have to remove trees,” Martin said. “Aesthetically, that’s not a really good thing for this area. We’re going to try to find out what our options are.”
Martin said college officials want to make sure “we’re protected but not overreacting to something that may not be an issue. We’re at the very beginning of this process. There will be a lot of discussion and research. We just want to make sure it’s not an overreaction to problems in other parts of the country.”
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oneanddone on July 12 at 8:32 p.m.
This makes no sense. Multiple studies have shown that tree roots stabilize river banks. The Army Corps has screwed up countless other areas. I guess now it’s our turn.
idahocity on July 12 at 9:32 p.m.
wasn’t it the army corp that caused all that flooding on the missouri river by not keeping the dams open when they should have.
RedCedar on July 12 at 9:34 p.m.
The Corps is right, technically. However, like most technical experts, they’re only looking at the one thing they’re expert in, which in this case is maintaining a levee. Unfortunately, the Corps is largely a law unto itself (read “The Public be Dammed” by William O. Douglas, in a 1968 Playboy magazine. Yes, people used to read it for the articles). For example, despite the name only the tiniest bit of upper management actually consists of Defense Department employees. The vast majority of the agency does not work for the Army at all.
In a more holistic view, wiser people would see that the point of a levee is to protect a community from flooding, that flooding is one of many things that can be damaging to the quality of life in a community, that trees and a nice pathway are beneficial to that quality of life, and that all of these quality of life issues need to be balanced. The article cites Hurricane Katrina as an example. If resistance to hurricanes was all that mattered, everyone in New Orleans would live in a reinforced concrete box mounted atop tall posts. Obviously they’d rather accept some risk of wind and water damage and live in a better-looking place. Coeur d’Alene needs to be allowed to weigh its own risks and benefits in having a less-than-ideal levee, but having a lovely tree-shaded walking path near the river.
The bottom line is that what makes a city good is that it’s a good place for people to live. It’s not just a good tax base, or a low crime rate, or a large number of churches, or a good place for investors to make money, or a flood-proof levee or any other single thing.
It may end up that they really do need to cut down all the trees on the levee. They did that near St Maries a few years ago. Before they do that, though, the Cd’A city engineers should take a good look at how high the realistic high water mark is likely to be, even without the levee, and how likely it is that valuable property would be damaged. It may turn out that the amount of damage a failed levee is likely to cause would be small enough that the city could assume the risk.
Risk/benefit analyses are tricky. You can never say for sure that this will happen or that won’t happen, or that this much risk is worth budgeting for and this much is not. Somebody will always find a legitimate way to take issue with whatever you decide. A levee expert will tell you how to best maintain a levee, just like a dentist will tell you how to maintain your teeth, but the dentist can’t tel l you how to be a happy, healthy person, and the levee expert can’t tell you how important trees are compared to flood risk in your community. The local politicians (e.g. the mayor) can either take a crack at that tough decision, weigh the various factors, listen to the various experts, and try to make a good judgment call, or punt and say “We have to do what the CoE says. Sorry. Yell at them if you want.”
kneedrager on July 12 at 10:04 p.m.
one and idaho….if you read the story, you’ll note that the Army Corp has let it go as it has been. not until they got a 3rd party in to do the inspection did they realize that there was a potential issue.
Red.. wow, you have way too much time on your hands.
When doing Disaster planning, you always look at the worst case scenario, that’s it. If the levy was planned and built without tree roots in it, and that’s the spec, then the tree roots have created an out of spec solution. Better to be safe than sorry, full stop.
greenlibertarian on July 12 at 11:53 p.m.
I think the Feds are all wet here.
RedCedar on July 13 at 8:38 a.m.
Red.. wow, you have way too much time on your hands
No, I was stalling because I didn’t want to deal with the toilet in my rental house that was leaking into the basement. I’ll do anything to avoid dealing with crappy plumbing, even blather away on newspaper comment boards sometimes. Thankfully the sewage now appears to be staying inside the pipe, so I’ll see you all later!