County tree-cutting to continue

Weeks after approximately 100 trees were cut from ditches and fence lines along Fiddler Creek Road in what the county called routine maintenance work, residents remain unsatisfied with the answers given to them and the county’s plans to continue such work in the county’s rights-of-way.
Fishtail area residents Richard and Virginia Cross manage the Bench Ranch on the nearby West Rosebud Road and represent approximately 50 people who signed a petition asking the commissioners to stop cutting until a public hearing could be held.
Cross was one of four people who hand-delivered the petition to the commission office and said they received a less than warm response.
“Had it waved at us like a piece of trash and told by Mr. Dell (Commissioner Gerald Dell) ‘this won’t change anything’,” said Cross.

Determining Right-of-Way
The issue of determining county right-of-way is a complicated one as it varies from road to road and is not as clear-cut as it sounds.
For Fiddler Creek Road, the county’s right-of-way is 60-feet, measured from the center of the road to each side at 30 feet, according to Stillwater County Attorney Nancy Rohde and the Clerk & Recorder’s Office.
However, that 60-foot measurement is not an absolute number with the county acknowledging that it changes in places due to variances in the actual road over the years, as well as fence line placements. So for maintenance duties such as what was conducted on Fiddler Creek Road, the county worked from fence-line to fence-line, said Rohde. That means the county cut trees from the fence-line down to the road.
Cross contacted the Clerk & Recorder’s Office to inquire about right-of-way measurements on the West Rosebud Road.
The right-of-way on the West Rosebud Road is the same as it is on Fiddler Creek Road -- 60-feet wide.
After receiving that information, Cross and others went to a handful of locations where trees had been cut on Fiddler Creek Road and conducted their own measurements, which revealed trees were cut outside of that 60-foot width.
However, with Rohde’s explanation of how right-of-way measurements are handled, Cross said that may be a moot point now.

Petition
The petition submitted to the commissioners approximately two weeks ago stated that the signers believed the removal of trees was “unnecessary and unwarranted.”
The petition also asked the commissioners to stop the road department’s plan to continue removing trees in the county’s rights-of-way without first holding a public meeting to discuss it with citizens.
“We think when a radical change in the scenery of a section of public road is going to be undertaken without any compelling reason being advanced to those living in the vicinity and those who most often use the road there should have been a public meeting to discuss it,” stated the petition.
The petition was signed by 33 people, with an additional 19 people emailing their signatures to be added to the document.
The commission told the News Wednesday morning that “The petition, accompanied by a letter of explanation from the county attorney, will be on the January 5th, 2016 agenda.”
Cross said he was pleased to learn the petition had been put on the agenda and “would expect that no more clear cutting will take place until after that meeting.”
Cross and other residents are asking the county to reconsider how they cut, specifically favoring “a more selective thinning.”
The key, said Cross, is having a dialogue with the county and with those affected.

Maintenance
County Road Superintendent Mark Schreiner has said the clearing of the trees is part of ongoing maintenance aimed at keeping roads safer but keeping trees from casting shadows on the roads and making them more dangerous during the winter months. Fire mitigation is another safety factor Schreiner has cited.
The county acknowledges that citizens have not routinely seen county crews working on maintenance projects such as tree clearing, therefore giving the impression that it is a new project rather than overdue maintenance. The county also said the tree cutting will continue.