A tree is seen split in half following a wind storm in the Borst Park Arboretum in Centralia in January 2019.
The results of a study conducted at three parks in Centralia and the downtown area to determine which trees are unsafe and need to be removed were presented to the city council Tuesday night.
The three parks where the trees were studied by Washington Forestry Consultants were Riverside Park, George Washington Park and Fort Borst Park.
“We received results back and unfortunately they didn’t come out that great,” said Centralia Community Development Director Emil Pierson.
In Fort Borst Park, 904 trees were studied and it was found that 837 are healthy, 67 are unhealthy, 26 of them need to be removed immediately and four “hazard trees” need to be pruned.
The trees that need to be removed are either dead or suffering from some sort of rot, including red ring rot and brown cubical rot.
“If you remember, the interesting thing is that we actually had somebody go through the park about a year ago and here we are one year later and 26 additional trees have been identified (as needing to be removed),” said Pierson.
In Centralia’s downtown area, there were a total of 122 trees studied. Of those, 103 were identified as healthy and 19 as unhealthy.
Of those unhealthy trees, seven were recommended to be removed immediately.
In Washington Park, of the 39 trees studied there was only one that was identified as unhealthy. None need to be removed, but four need to be pruned back.
“(Washington Forestry Consultants) are recommending that we hire professionals to do (the pruning) and that’s probably in the range of about $1,200,” said Pierson.
Of the 154 total trees in Riverside Park, there are 23 unhealthy trees, nine of which need to be removed immediately. There are three trees that need to be pruned.
“I will be coming back to you once we receive an estimate and figured out what we would like to do. I will say that the very sad part of Borst Park is … that most of the trees that need to be removed are on the north end and they are the grand Douglas Fir trees,” said Pierson.
Pierson said that the city will look at replanting in place of the removed trees.
