PORT ANGELES — The Federal Aviation Administration wants an environmental assessment that could take nine months before any of Lincoln Park’s tallest trees are felled to preserve airspace at William R. Fairchild International Airport, Port commissioners was told Monday.
“An environmental assessment is very important and we want that before we move forward,” Port of Port Angeles Commissioner John Calhoun said.
The Port owns and operates the airport on Port Angeles’ west side.
Under FAA regulations, trees and any other obstructions must be removed from an area 10,000 feet beyond the end of the airport’s main runway and 5,000 feet beyond the end of the alternate north-south runway.
Airport Manager Jeff Robb presented the commissioners with options Monday that ranged from removing up to 200 tall trees in the city’s Lincoln Park to preserve current aircraft approach areas, removing 605 trees to regain 1,350 feet of runway currently off limits because of the towering trees, or removing up to 4,000 trees to clear approach, departure and transition areas.
Robb recommended the option that included removing up to 200 trees, noting that the option to remove 605 of the firs lacks support from the city.
‘We’d rather not cut trees’
“We’d rather not cut down trees. The trees are growing, but there’s converging interests,” Robb said.
“There’s going to have to be some compromise, but we feel we already have [compromised].”
Robb said the airport needs to provide enough clear area so pilots can approach the runway using only instruments without traveling out west to Striped Peak to pick up a signal, which adds up to 20 more minutes and $75 per flight.
Adding 1,350 feet of runway to the west would cost up to $25 million, wouldn’t be funded by the federal government — and still would have the same tree-removal problems, Robb said.
The federal airspace regulations are designed to protect the airport’s air space, he added.
