Losing trees but saving 'hoot' habitat

Nearly 5,000 trees, some of them 100-year-old maples and basswoods, are coming down in Lake Rebecca Park Reserve in Rockford to clear the path for a $350 million, 221-mile Northern Natural Gas Co. pipeline expansion.

Tree-cutting for the pipeline started this week along a corridor 30 yards wide and 4.25 miles long through the parkland. Construction has been strictly scheduled to avoid disturbing winter nesting by Great Horned Owls. Owl nesting places are to be moved as trees are cut.

Northern Natural Gas of Omaha originally proposed the most direct route for the pipeline extension -- directly across the middle of the Park Reserve's wildlife sanctuary -- an area considered to be of "high biological significance" and reserved for plants, animals and research. Three Rivers Park District prevailed in moving the route to the perimeter of the park.

"It could have been worse," said John Barten, director of natural resources for the Park District. "We would have had a pipeline right through the center of the forest. We appreciate the fact that they were willing to take a less direct route through the park and allow us to protect more critical habitat."

About 2 percent of the park's total acreage and trees are affected by the pipeline project.

It will be an intrusion, said Park District Wildlife Manager Larry Gillette. "It's supposed to be a big woods park. When you have a pipeline and have to keep the corridor clear of trees, it's kind of hard to have a wooded park."

Although Three Rivers proposed that the pipeline go around the park altogether, an earlier pipeline crossed Lake Rebecca Park Reserve in the 1960s, and expansion along the same route was inevitable, said Park District attorney Jeff Brauchle.

Some of the new pipeline will run close to the first line, which runs roughly parallel to County Rd. 50 from the southwest corner of the park near the intersection of County Rd. 11 to East Lake Rebecca Road. Along that stretch, the company will add a 16-inch pipe parallel to an existing 6-inch pipe.

A stretch of pipeline will run parallel to the Soo Line Railroad near Hwy. 55. The two pipelines are not connected in the park.

After about two weeks of tree-cutting, grading is scheduled to start in early December and is likely to cause temporary closing of horse, hiking and bike trails where they intersect with the pipeline corridor, Three Rivers said.

During the work, Northern Natural Gas will search for and move owl nests from the construction zone to encourage the birds to nest elsewhere. Great Horned Owls use nests abandoned by crows or hawks or stake out space in tree cavities and other natural nesting spots.

The work will go on for about four weeks and then stop until spring, said Brauchle, the Park District lawyer. "The owl issue is resolved by timing," he said.

Exactly how much Northern Natural Gas will have to pay Three Rivers for the lost trees and use of the land is still to be settled, Barten said. Each side has done its own appraisal. Settlement negotiations will start from there, Barten said.

The value of a tree depends on its size, age, species and form, Barten said. The appraisers also were asked to put a value on the forest land that will be lost.

Most of the money won in the settlement will be used to reestablish native plants on the bare ground and protect the exposed area from the invasion of species such as buckthorn, he said.

The felled trees will be used as firewood, said Brauchle, the attorney. He said the effort to contain the spread of the emerald ash borer means keeping tight control on firewood. "We're very keen on making use of it for our campers," he said.

Brauchle estimated the trees would keep the Park District in firewood for several years.

The new supply of natural gas will be used to generate electric power (32 percent); for heating, cooking and manufacturing (41 percent); and to produce ethanol (27 percent), Loeffler said.

Laurie Blake • 612-673-1711