While meeting with a group of about 30 concerned residents Saturday, officials from the National Park Service (NPS) said they didn’t know the next step for 18 trees marked for removal at the Swain’s Lock campground area just off River Road.
NPS arborists determined this summer that 26 of the trees at the site, which is part of the 184-mile long C&O Canal National Historical Park, were dead and in danger of falling on campers below. The arborists also determined 32 other trees on the site needed to be pruned because of dead branches that could also fall.
But when tree-cutting contractors began cutting down eight of the trees on Oct. 16, nearby residents concerned about the work called County Council member Roger Berliner. Berliner contacted Kevin Brandt, superintendent of the C&O Canal National Historical Park, who agreed to halt the project until NPS officials could give a clear explanation of why they thought the trees needed to come down.
Brandt and the two NPS arborists (one who recently took a job as an arborist for Montgomery County) met with community members at the Swain’s Lock site on a rainy Saturday morning, going tree by tree to show why they determined each tree needed to be removed or cut back.
The arborists also determined 16 trees need to be removed and 14 pruned at the Riley’s Lock recreation area in Poolesville and more trees need to be removed at the Marsden Tract campground in Potomac.
Brandt said the review of trees was part of the park’s regular “hazard tree” management program. Park officials try to look at the health of all trees in the park’s “developed” areas on an annual basis to ensure users of the park aren’t in danger from falling limbs, he said.
He alluded to an incident in March on a section of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where a Philadelphia man was killed after he was hit in the head by a falling tree.
“The goal is to preserve the greatest number of trees in the park, consistent with safety requirements,” Brandt told the group. “Here we are in the campground and there are about seven or eight tents pitched under these trees. In these developed areas, visitor safety is paramount. …Once we’ve identified it as a hazard tree, we need to do something, because if we do nothing and someone gets injured, then the federal government is liable.”
C&O Canal National Historical Park Superintendent Kevin Brandt (left, with brown hat) speaks to community members Saturday at Swain's Lock. Credit: Aaron Kraut
A stump remains from one of the trees already removed at the Swain's Lock campground in Potomac, with the Potomac River in the background. Credit: Aaron Kraut
The arborists pointed to one tree that showed no new foliage this summer, an indication that the tree is dead and at risk of falling. Other trees that have already been pruned had top branches taken off.
“This is not something that is abstract or theoretical,” Brandt said. “There are defective trees everywhere, but not everywhere is there a hazardous [tree]. They’re not hazardous until there’s something that could be damaged. Generally, we consider that [to be a] human life, but it could be a historic structure.”
Still, some nearby residents who attended the event resisted the idea that the trees should be cut down.
“You put it down to a choice between environmental well-being and public safety and I think that’s blowing the issue all out of perspective,” one nearby resident to Brandt said.
Ginny Barnes, one of the Potomac residents who first brought the tree-cutting program to Berliner’s attention, asked Brandt if the NPS should consider moving the campground to a site where campers wouldn’t be under large trees.
Most of the trees at the Swain’s Lock site are silver maples and are likely between 40 and 60 years old, according to former NPS arborist Ryan Jones, who now works for the county.
Brandt said NPS could consider moving the campground.
He said he’s not sure what the next move will be after meeting with residents, but that he’d like to come to “some sort of understanding” with those in the community. He did say that the NPS plans to plant new trees on the site and the best time to plant those new trees would be before winter.
He gave no timeline for a decision from the NPS on whether to continue with the tree cutting.
List of trees that are scheduled to be pruned or removed at the Swain's Lock campground. Credit: Aaron Kraut
