Logging plan calls for cutting down 2,000 trees

TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » The town is reviewing an application from Angela Buzzanco to cut down nearly 2,000 trees on about 50 acres near Sawkill-Ruby Road.

Forester Cory Creagan said at a recent public hearing on the matter that mature oak trees would be taken down and sold for commercial use.

“We’re only taking trees of a certain size,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of trees left when we’re done. It’ll still be forested.”

The trees that would be cut down “are basically ready to be cut for select timber use,” Creagan said. “They’ll be milled up, most likely by a local mill. The loggers [are] also local.”

Information from the state Department of Environmental Conservation shows no wetlands would be impacted and the work would be done more than a quarter-mile from a Northern long-eared bat hibernaculum.

The only comment at the hearing was from resident Dawn DeLuca, who wanted an assurance that the work was not being done in conjunction with changes in a power line corridor.

“I have ridden down some of those roads, and that area is literally being stripped of trees,” she said.

Town officials said the timber harvest was not related to power lines. They also said there would be a 100-foot buffer of trees between the harvested area and neighboring properties.

Creagan said steps also are being taken to keep the work from affecting storm drainage at the site.

“To prevent flooding, we’ll be using water bars on all of the logging roads ... to prevent any sort of erosion,” he said.