(Radio Iowa) – A massive tree clearing project is planned for the Lewis and Clark State Park in Harrison County, near Mondamin. The D-N-R’s Sherry Arntzen says they closed the park on September 8th over safety concerns after noticing several dead trees. “The examination of 137 representative trees revealed that 99 percent of the park’s predominant species, eastern cottonwood, exhibit crown dieback with ten percent already standing dead,” she says. Arntzen says the trees range in diameter from 18 to 48 inches wide. “Mortality is attributed to over maturity and prolonged drought. Due to these harsh conditions, any tree with one-fourth or more canopy loss is unlikely to survive and classified as hazard,” Arntzen says.

The Natural Resources Commission approved a contract not to exceed one-point-seven million dollars for cutting down and removing the trees. Arntzen says they plan to remove the trees in two phases to improve the safety of the park. “Phase one involves felling approximately 610 mature trees in the campground and high use areas,” she says. “And phase two expands to clearing all hazardous timber within 150 feet of all hiking trails and roads covering approximately 98-point-five acres.” Arntzen says the first phase around the campground is expected to be completed by July. “The successful bidder anticipates being completed in that campground in time for RAGBRAI. So we had no idea that the RAGBRAI route was going to start in Onawa when all of this started back last fall,” she says. Getting rid of the wood from the felled trees is part of the contract.

“They’re going to fell the marked trees, they’re going to grind all the stumps, and they’re going to transport and dispose and burn of all woody debris and vegetation. We do have some brush piles established already that are out and away from our primary use areas,” she says. Arntzen says they have already planted a few trees and will look at the best way to replace trees that are removed. “And we will work with our foresters on appropriate trees to put back in our high use areas that is conducive to the soils that are there,” she says.

The work in the areas that are not high use could extend into March of 2028.