Commissioners confronted about tree cutting

Six landowners opposed to tree cutting last year along Fiddler Creek Road faced off with the Stillwater County Commissioners during its Jan. 5 meeting. Maureen Davey was absent.
While the county defends the cutting as necessary road maintenance for safety reasons, the landowners have called it “clear cutting” and objected to its impact on the aesthetic landscape.
Richard Cross claimed county crews removed trees beyond the county’s 60-foot right-of-way.
“They went fence line to fence line,” Commissioner Gerald Dell responded.
But some fence lines are 150 feet away from the road, Cross noted. He warned that lawsuits might be filed if trees in the future are removed right up to the fence line – beyond the 60-foot right-of-way.
If a fence is in the wrong place, that’s the landowner’s responsibility, Dell said.
Stillwater County Attorney Nancy Rohde explained that rights-of-way are not always straightforward, and in order for road crews to work efficiently, they need to “eyeball” the rights-of-way.
“We’re not going to measure everything,” she said.
Cross agreed to a common-sense approach for road crews but warned that “we’ll fight” against any tree cutting beyond the 60-foot right-of-way. He also said he wanted the commissioners to take advice from the landowners about cutting with more discretion but felt rebuffed by Dell when the commissioner told Cross last year that their petition would make no difference.
“That never happened,” Dell responded.
Rohde suggested that the landowners present their case during the commissioners’ regular agenda meeting and also make an appointment to meet with them.
“The board would be foolish not to listen to you,” she said.
When Virginia Cross asked if the county intended to stick to its fence line to fence line rule, Dell said county crews would need to look at each road individually while Rohde said no, the county needs to discuss the rule with Road & Bridge Department Superintendent Mark Schreiner when he returns.
“It’s too broad a term,” she said.
“Can we agree to something other than ‘eyeballing’?’ Karen Heyneman asked.
Rohde said she wasn’t exactly sure how the road crews determine rights-of-way, but it should be based on 60 feet or whatever the right-of-way width is for a particular road.
Alex Heyneman asked if landowners could flag trees they wanted to protect ahead of future road work.
Rohde agreed that was a good idea, but Dell later called the News office and said the commissioners had not approved that idea.
Richard Cross asked if road crews clear-cut rights-of-way out of safety concerns or because it was easier. He suggested that road safety could be improved without clear-cutting.
Rohde said the difference between clear-cutting and cutting by “discretion” is not simple.
“We don’t need to get into a discussion about what is clear-cutting now,” she said.
Dan Burkhart asked if the county had allocated additional money for tree cutting, and that additional funding explained the recent work on Fiddler Creek Road. Some of the trees cut there were decades old, he noted.
Dell said he ran a report and found 55 county roads had been worked on from 2008 to 2015, but he hadn’t seen a report on collisions with deer.
“I’ve driven that road for 15 years and never had any problems with deer,” Burkhart said.

County responds to petition

In a Dec. 14 petition with 33 signatures and 15 typed names, opponents to tree cutting last year along Fiddler Creek Road called the work unnecessary, unwarranted and without compelling reason, and they asked the commissioners to suspend further tree removal on the road and to hold a public hearing on the matter with concerned citizens.
Stillwater County Attorney Nancy Rohde responded to the petition in a Jan. 4 letter stating that the commissioners have no obligation to hold a public hearing. Citizens, however, have a constitutional right to active participation in government, she said, so she recommended that the commissioners designate a time on their regular agenda to hear concerns over road issues and that concerned landowners make an appointment to meet with the commissioners.
In her review of historical records, Rohde determined that Fiddler Creek Road was created by a freeholders petition that was approved by the commissioners in accordance with state law.
The petitioned easement came with a 60-foot right-of-way, she said.
Under state law, the commissioners have a duty to maintain county roads, and state law states that “a board of commissioners may determine the level and scope of maintenance on a county road under its jurisdiction,” Rohde said.
Road work delegated to the county’s road department’s supervision follow standards established by the Montana Department of Transportation and the federal American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials, she said.
Those standards include safety concerns such as sight distance, stopping distance, snowplowing, road grading, mowing, slope flattening and removing hazards from the clear zone on either side of the roadway, Rohde said.
“Trees larger than four inches in diameter are considered to be hazards by MDT and AASHTO standards,” she said.
The Stillwater County Road & Bridge Department established a five-year Major Project plan in 2014 that includes general road maintenance across the county.
“It is my advice to the board that this project plan be followed,” Rohde said.