Saving trees

from developers' bulldozers has proved to be even harder than expected.

Over the next

few months, Fayette County's Engineering Department will make an attempt

to rewrite the tree retention, protection and replacement ordinance that

was approved just ten months ago.

"We would

like to revisit this whole ordinance," county engineer Ron Salmons

told the Planning Commission during its workshop meeting last week.

One main goal

of the new tree ordinance adopted in February was to stop the wholesale

stripping of large tracts of land, and that hasn't been accomplished,

said Salmons.

One deficiency,

he said, is that the ordinance doesn't address clear-cutting in timbering

operations. During the last round of discussions, consensus of the Planning

Commission was that timbering is regulated by the state and county ordinances

wouldn't apply, but Salmons said he wants to research that further.

"I think

we can do this so that we allow the timber industry to make a profit and

still not have a piece of property that looks like a war zone," said

Salmons.

Salmons, who

was hired by the county a couple of months ago, said in that short time

he has already had several phone calls from residents complaining of land

left barren of trees during development or timbering.

Wanting to

determine how much of the problem is caused by timbering and how much

operations in the past year, five of them associated with development,"

he said.

Developers

often sell the timber on a piece of property before beginning construction.

"I think

there's an education problem with the surveyors," he said, adding

that he plans to send inspectors to check each site until that problem

is addressed.

To address

the timbering problem, Salmons said he has gathered ordinances from other

counties that do regulate clear-cutting. One requires that timber companies

leave at least ten large trees, even on a clear-cut site.

Another allows

only pine to be harvested.

Another problem

with the ordinance, Salmons said, is that surveyors working for developers

often are not correctly measuring trees, and therefore some are being

destroyed that shouldn't be.

Civil engineer

Dave Borkowski also recently attended a forestry conference in which tree

protection was discussed at length, and he suggested some other areas

where the ordinance might be strengthened.

Protecting

trees from damage during construction might need more work, he said, adding

that the law might benefit as well by adding height requirements for protected

trees, in addition to the diameter requirements currently in place.

Designing developments

so that the county doesn't lose canopy cover also should be addressed,

he said.

"They

also recommend that the tree plan be done by an arborist or a landscape

architect," he said.

Planning Commission

members told Salmons that if he can find a legal way to regulate timbering,

they're all for it.

"I would

love to see this," said commissioner Fred Bowen.

"If you

can get away with it, I'd love it," said commissioner Jim Graw. "What

they've done is horrible."

Salmons said

he and Borkowski will work on a rewrite and report on their progress in

a few months, possibly February.