PORT ANGELES — William Hunt has an affinity for the trees at Lincoln Park, and he wants to save them from being cut down.
The Port Angeles resident and his friend, Devon Gray, have started a petition drive, hoping to protect the evergreens the Port of Port Angeles wants to remove to improve landing access to William R. Fairchild International Airport.
Together, they are known as Olympic Mountain People, and at 6 p.m. Tuesday, they will host a meeting at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St., to urge others to save the trees.
“We don’t see the point really,” Hunt said, of the port’s proposal. “It seems like the point of this is to make it easier for the airline, to make it easier for business, for corporate jets.
“We don’t really see that need when they can expand to the west.”
They’re not alone in their opposition. Copies of the petition they provided show 104 signatures. Hunt said they have received another 45.
Only viable option
Port airport manager Doug Sandau said the port, which owns the airport, has no viable option other than removing the trees.
The port has estimated that extending the runway would cost $30 million and likely take longer since it would involve property acquisition, he said.
The cost of removing the trees and the park master plan that would determine what would go in their place is estimated to cost $3.2 million. Most of that is covered by the Federal Aviation Administration, with a 5 percent match from the port.
It’s unlikely, Sandau said, that the FAA would agree to help fund a more costly option.
“There’s only so much money available for this airport,” he said.
Safety risk
The trees are an issue for the port because they make 1,354 feet of the runway unusable and pose a safety risk to landing aircraft.
That makes it difficult for larger planes to use the airport and requires Kenmore Air, the only scheduled passenger air service on the North Olympic Peninsula, to land from the west during poor weather.
The port and the city of Port Angeles, which owns the park, are looking to replace the trees with lower-canopy species.
But Hunt said that’s not good enough, adding he doesn’t see the tall evergreens as a nuisance; rather, he said, they should be something to admire.
“There’s a nice grove of trees right there close to town that people can go and enjoy,” Hunt said. “You plant different trees, you’re not going to have the same effect. It’s going to be a big, flat lot for a long period of time.”
It wouldn’t be the first time that trees were felled at Lincoln Park.
350 trees cut in 2008
About 350 trees were cut in 2008 to prevent more of the runway from becoming unusable.
Sandau said the port is looking to remove all of the trees in the approach zone to the runway, which includes the entire park, in order to avoid coming back every few years to remove more.
“We’re in a situation now where every several years, we have to go back to get permission from the city to cut some more trees,” he said. “It’s going to be a continual, ongoing thing as long as those trees are there.”
The proposal has received support from the City Council.
Sandau said it’s unknown how many of the trees will be replaced. That would be determined through the park master plan.
That plan is expected to be done in 2014, he said, adding trees likely will be cut that year.
The port has hired HBB Landscape Architecture to make the plan.
The first public meetings on the planning process likely will be held this summer, Sandau said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
