Dike Road Trees Fall w/o Review

You may have heard that the city of Coeur d’Alene harvested more ponderosa pine from the Dike Road (Rosenberry Drive) than originally advertised. Maybe twice as much. But did you know how that fact came to light? The cut zone was part of the route that S-R buddy Greg Lee and I walk at noon on weekdays. We noticed during our walks a few weeks ago that the cut seemed to be heavier than the 30 percent of some 1,000 trees estimated before the project began. Way heavier. Part of the levee running along the Spokane River was almost clear-cut. Last week, Greg and I counted the trees left. He took the bank along North Idaho College – 136 trees. I counted the pines along the water side – 194 trees. Dunno much about algebra. But I do know how to add. That totals 330 trees. I posted the results of the informal survey in my Huckleberries Online blog ( www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo ). And the fertilizer hit the fan. Maybe a bigger cut was needed to appease the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the certifying agency that had wanted a clear-cut. But the city erred by not including independent citizen review while the trees were toppling/ DFO , Sunday Huckleberries. More here .

Question: Do you suppose there have been any lessons learned re: this situation?