Felling trees for safety
Dozens of decades-old trees have been felled at the Short Line Hollow Park trail head in Ross as part of ongoing efforts to stabilize the hillside. In the wake of the work, a volunteer group that had been working with township officials to improve trails and access to the park has decried the denuding of the land, with one such volunteer proclaiming the park “dead” in a passionate post on the Friends of Short Line Hollow Park Facebook page.
Municipal officials, as a matter of course, should work hard to preserve trees, especially those in green spaces — for their environmental value, their beauty, their history. However, when those trees stand in the way of safety or land stability, they must be carefully and minimally pruned, thinned or even cleared.
The issue for Short Line Hollow Park began in 2019, when the nearby Reis Run Road experienced a landslide that blocked the moderately trafficked road with thousands of tons of “fill.” Township officials chose to dump some of the fill at the Short Line trail head on Cemetery Lane to reopen the road as quickly as possible, temporarily closing it to hikers and bikers and promising a multiyear plan to increase parking and make the trail head — formerly accessible only to experienced hikers — more accessible to the general public.
Dumping so much of the Reis Run landslide fill on the trail head has reduced the stability of the hillside. While removing trees may seem counterintuitive in promoting stability, Daniel DeMarco, president of the Ross board of commissioners, said engineers had determined that cutting down some of the trees was necessary to beef up the hillside’s structural integrity.
Ross secured the necessary permits, getting the go-ahead from the Allegheny County Conservation District. The township publicized a year ago that the trail head would be developed.
Parkgoers’ dismay with the plans is understandable. The volunteers who spent hours helping to blaze trails and subsequently hike and enjoy them are upset. But their ire is misplaced. Painful as it can be to watch timbers felled — especially in such a publicly traversed area — public safety and sound infrastructure planning must prevail.
Cutting down these mighty trees will lead to a safer park that can be enjoyed by all.
The township is holding a meeting Monday and residents can attend and give voice to any questions and discontent. An engineer will be present with a written report regarding ongoing developments including the Short Line Hollow Park project. Perhaps tempers will be cooled and stakeholders in the township’s future will be convinced that Ross made the right call.