Reclamation Project May Land in Court

A reclamation project to remove tangled trees and thicket from a small park in New York State has turned ugly as the crews tasked with removing this material allegedly cleared trees and shrubs in addition to the invasive plants.

Controversy surrounding the removal of invasive plants at a park in New York state has landed the project in the "when good reclamation goes bad" file.

For the past several years, Bartlett Pond Park in Middle Island, N.Y., has been plagued by invasive species that have strangled trees to death and made hiking nearly impossible. In order to take back the nearly two-acre wooded portion of the park, crews from the neighboring Brookhaven Town Parks Department cleared dead trees and saved others by ridding the area of vines and wisteria.

At the tome of the clearing, town officials and residents applauded the reclamation efforts.

“The former wooded lot was a jungle of dead and dying trees,” said Middle Island Civic president Tom Talbot. “Since we have a new palate to work from, we now have flexibility to create a park that people want.”

Talbot’s comments were made in early April. Two weeks later, it was discovered that crews cleared more land than was permitted by state law.

John Pavacic, executive director of the Central Pine Barrens Commission, said Brookhaven Town is under investigation by the commission for clearing over an acre of land at the town park.

In May 2010, the commission held a public hearing on a hardship application from the Longwood Alliance, which was requesting the commission’s approval to clear more land than allowable by law because the amount of damage caused by the invasive species has created an unsafe environment for hiking.

But at the conclusion of the hearing, commission members determined that a hardship was not needed as long as the clearing for a trail did not exceed four feet, Pavacic said.

Pine Barrens Society executive director Richard Amper called the clearing allegations “very serious.”

“This is a clear violation of the Pine Barrens Act,” he said. “The town knew or should have known that it was a violation of state law.”

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko has taken full responsibility for the illegal clearing of trees at the park, adding that he has developed a proposal to restore the land. Lesko said the town’s intentions were good because it appeared that vines and other invasive species were having a “detrimental effect” on the trees at the park. He added that a restoration plan is in the works and that an arborist will assess the survivability of the remaining trees at the park. He also said a landscape architect will map out a plan to replant trees and shrubs.

Lesko’s mea culpa was not enough to prevent Amper from threatening to take the matter to court.

“This should not have happened — cannot happen — and is clearly a violation of state law,” Amper said, adding that the commission should pursue legal action in order to “prevent this from happening again.”

Pavacic, bringing a sense of calm to the situation, said that the matter should be investigated further before bringing the issue before the courts.

“We need to hear from the commission on whether or not they want us to do anything further,” he said, adding that he believed the commission will make a decision by its next meeting, which is scheduled for June 15.