Hang-Up Delays Levee Improvement Work County Can’t Find Qualified Logger To Remove Disputed Cottonwoods

A construction project to improve two St. Joe River levees at St. Maries is at a standstill.

Benewah County hasn’t been able to find a logging contractor to remove cottonwood trees growing on the levees, county Commissioner Jack Buell said Tuesday.

The hang-up, Buell said, is that the contract requires a public works license.

“That’s a rare thing - to find sawyers who have that license,” Buell said.

The federally funded work is being done to help prevent a repeat of the February 1996 disaster at St. Maries, when the Riverdale and Meadowhurst areas were flooded. High water threatened businesses and homes again last May.

The 80-year-old levees are being reinforced with clay and their back slopes are being broadened. The Army Corps of Engineers insists that many large cottonwoods be removed to prevent the trees from toppling and weakening the earthen levees.

Some St. Maries residents strongly objected to removal of the hundreds of trees along the scenic Meadowhurst levee early this year.

Some riverside homeowners balked at signing the necessary agreements to allow tree removal. One Riverdale resident still has not signed, Buell said.

County officials had planned for the tree-cutting to start Monday.

The Idaho Audubon Council is threatening to sue and seeks a temporary restraining order to stop the tree-cutting planned for the Riverdale levee.

Migratory eagles that perch in the trees - the focus of environmentalists’ concerns - will be returning soon to the St. Joe, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

, DataTimes