As tree clearing continues for the Talkeetna State Airport Expansion and Improvement Project, the methods being used are not sitting well with some locals. The project has been in development for nearly two decades, and involves paving new parking areas for aircraft and a new taxiway as well as resurfacing existing aprons and taxiways. KTNA’s Phillip Manning has more:
Recently, large pieces of equipment were used to cut down a majority of the trees on the airport side of Second Street in East Talkeetna in addition to cutting at the airport itself.
Talkeetna business owner Holly Sheldon Lee opposes the airport expansion, and says Talkeetna lacks the infrastructure to deal with what she calls “industrial tourism.”
“One of the main reasons that we are not in a position to expand the airport is that our infrastructure is broken, broken by overgrown tourist industry that has evolved here. We are now overrun with 300,000 people in our 100-day summer season with no utility support.”
In addition, Holly Sheldon Lee says the Alaska Department of Transportation and its contractors are breaking promises by moving ahead with the clearing on the grounds of the airport and for an eight-foot-wide walking path along the road.
Last August, work temporarily paused on the project, and officials from the Department of Transportation, including Commissioner Marc Luiken, visited Talkeetna to discuss the project with area residents who were concerned about the large-scale tree clearing going on at that time. One repeated request by some in attendance was to alter the nature of the path along Second Street. Many believe it would be possible to “meander” the planned walking path to avoid cutting some of the trees lining the street. Tom Schmidt, who helped engineer the project, said at the August meeting that space contraints limited the path’s placement.
“It doesn’t give you much room to put a pathway in—an eight-foot pathway with one-foot shoulders on each side and ten feet up top. You just don’t have the area to manipulate and get around trees and such.”
Approximately $15,000 was then spent on a redesign process for the walking path, but the alternative ultimately chosen by DOT closely resembles the original. Then-project manager Laura Paul told the Talkeetna Community Council last September that a change in the first 150 feet of the path would leave a few trees standing that would otherwise have been cut.
“This deviation will result in not taking a Mountain Ash tree. In addition to this new alignment for the path, we’ve also identified two locations where trees will only require limited hand clearing and not full removal.”
Jill Reese, a DOT spokeswoman, says the department’s contractor resurveyed the path before the most recent cutting.
“We just want to make sure that we’ve done our due diligence as carefully as possible and, you know, left what we can.”
Reese says no additional trees could be spared from clearing as a result of the resurvey, adding that regulations, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, dictate the width of the path.
Beyond the loss of the trees themselves, Holly Sheldon Lee and others are concerned about the increased noise potential at the airport. Sheldon Lee cites the age of the noise study for the project as grounds for its re-evaluation under federal rules.
“This noise study that the Alaska State DOT is using is from 2004, before the large presence of the large aircraft operated here due to the industrial tourism level.”
Jill Reese says noise study has been updated twice since the original. The most recent noise study document posted for the project online is dated from 2008.
DOT maintains that trees are not considered by experts as a significant barrier to sound, and that the clearing should not significantly increase noise levels from the airport.
The reasons given by DOT for large-scale tree clearing throughout this process have centered on safety. Federal Aviation Administration regulations require a large area to be cleared in order for aircraft to be able to make instrument-guided approaches in poor weather. That requirement led to cutting beyond what would be necessary for construction of the project itself.
DOT says the walkway is also a safety measure, since it would provide access to businesses and hangars along Second Street without having to walk on the road itself or in an area where planes are parked and taxied.
Jill Reese says that most of the cutting that was planned has been completed, and that only one area, just under one-half acre between the railroad tracks and Talkeetna Spur Road remains. Currently, only three trees on that lot are marked for removal. Once clearing ends, the project will likely be put on hold until May.
