TRR photo by David Hulse Barbara Pratti surveys her view of logging opposite her home, along Beaver Brook in Yulan. (Click for larger image)

Zoning for logging

By DAVID HULSE

ELDRED — Barbara Pratti came home from work on her birthday last month and found the view from her rear deck had turned into a war zone.

Loggers had cut down many trees on the 18-acre parcel opposite Pratti’s property, destroying her sylvan view, leaving stumps, uncut dead trees, broken treetops, crushed small trees and a general mess.

Pratti, admittedly then hysterical, began calling local and state officials to get the cutting stopped or at least limited. No one knew of any remedy.

Pratti said inquiries to the Town of Highland found that the town does require a site plan approval for clear-cutting of properties over five acres. “[Councilman] Joe McDonald was very good. He came right over when I called about it.”

The site plan requirement has never been enforced, McDonald said later, because the ordinance never defined “logging.”

Pratti and some of her Park Road neighbors went before the town board asking for some relief on August 14. “We’re not saying, ‘no logging.’” she said, “All we want is to protect the value of our properties and not look at devastation.” She asked for a suitable buffer to be added to town zoning.

Town Attorney Andrew Boyar said the situation was a first “in countless logging operations,” in the town. The logger has since agreed to return to the site and clean up the debris, said Boyar.

Pratti said she probably wouldn’t have reacted so intensely if the debris had been cleared initially. “They just left a mess,” she said. She was also concerned that the low-lying, loose logs and debris would cause damage when the brook floods again. “Where’s all that going to go?” she asked.

Highway Superintendent Jim McKean said the impact of the logging was great because the stand of trees along the brook had not been harvested in many years, thus most of the trees were large and ready to cut.

Property owner Herb Wolff said the town should be prepared for legal action if it hinders property owners rights to harvest their trees. “You devalue my land if I can’t harvest,” he said.

Supervisor Allan Schadt appointed McDonald and Councilman Ed VanTuyl to co-chair a committee to study the problem and recommend actions.