A matter of scenery or safety?

During a time of year when pine trees are king, they have become the focus of heartbreak, anger and concern for folks in the Fishtail area.
Specifically, those who live along Fiddler Creek Road where many trees of pines were recently cut down by Stillwater County road crews.
The trees were removed from the county’s right-of-way for overdue maintenance and safety reasons, said Road Superintendent Mark Schreiner. But residents aren’t buy that explanation and Tuesday morning presented the Stillwater County Commissioners with a petition stating that they believe 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 right-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.
When asked if any action would be taken regarding the petition, the commissioners said “The Commission takes all comments into consideration.”

What Residents Say
Scenery is what draws many to the south county. In Fishtail and Nye, that scenery is a forested setting nestled against the foothills of the Beartooth Mountain Range, which also includes open land prime for ranches and farms.
The unexpected change of scenery was not well received by many.
“We talked with a lot of others and it was not just us that were appalled,” said Richard Cross, who works on the Heyneman Family Bench Ranch on the West Rosebud Road.
South Fiddler Creek Road resident Dan Burkhart used the terms “denuded” and “ugly” in describing the new landscape. What used to be sections of road lined by trees are now relatively barren.
Both men acknowledge that the county is within its legal right to remove trees in the right-of-way.
But they, and others, take exception that it was done with no notice given to the public, as well as what they say was a poor removal job that left behind a mess that was not cleaned up for days.
Additionally, they are unhappy with the attitudes they encountered when asking the county about what was happening.
An inital from Burhkart to the commissioners went unanswered. Although Commissioner Maureen Davey did later apologize and explain that she had been out of town, said Burkhart.

What the county says
Schreiner said the work done along Fiddler Creek Road, as well as in other parts of the county, is part of routine maintenance designed to keep the roads safer.
Keeping rights-of-way clear is also helpful for fire mitigation, said Schreiner.
Schreiner acknowledges that it has been a considerable length of time since such maintenance has been done and he understands that to residents, it may very well be the first time they are seeing the county work in these areas. He said the work will continue as time allows.
“I’m not here to make people mad,” said Schreiner.
Schreiner also said it’s not possible for his crews to tell all the residents in a specific area that maintenance work is going to be done.
Regarding Fiddler Creek Road, Schreiner said he received a handful of phone calls from people complaining that the trees along the road were camouflaging deer right before they crossed the road.
He says that trees have been removed from Benedict Gulch in Park City from Limestone Road in Nye and from Big Coulee Road towards Rapelje, all as part of ongoing maintenance.
Clearing the right-of-ways also aids the county in mowing and plowing, he said.
The idea, said Schreiner, is to keep branches from creating shade on the roadways which causes ice, as well as visibility. Schreiner points to Countryman Creek Road as being an example of how cutting trees in the county’s right-of-way has improved visibility on that road.
At least one Countryman Creek Road resident is not happy with work done there.
Melissa Ranstrom’s fence was damaged last month by road crews removing brush and trees from the right-of-way.
Ranstrom said she was at work and received a frantic call from her children saying that the fence was down, the horses were in the pasture and “all the trees were ripped out.”
She arrived home to find what she described as an already fragile fence with damage to T-posts and wood posts. Additionally, there were portions of branches left sticking through the fence on which her horses could have been impaled, she said.
When contacted by Ranstrom, Schreiner said he assured her the county would take care of it and immediately went to look at the fence. Ranstrom determined the fence could not be repaired and took it down, but wanted the county to replace it.
Ranstrom then reported the incident to the Stillwater County Sheriff’s Office and a deputy was sent to investigate. The result of that was the county buying her new T posts, two of which she accepted.
Schreiner said building a new fence for Ranstrom was not appropriate.
Ranstrom’s biggest gripes about the incident is that her horses were endangered and that she had no idea that kind of work was going to be done.
“They put my animals in harm’s way and I didn’t even get an apology,” said Ranstrom.

Middle Ground
Cross said these types of fights always boil down to each side taking the extreme. But that doesn’t need to happen with this issue.
“We are asking that they (the trees) get thinned with intelligence,” said Cross, adding that had been done 15 or 20 years ago.
The county has approximately 900 miles of unpaved roads.