PORT ANGELES — A federal flight restriction that blocked nighttime fixed-wing emergency airlift and commercial delivery services at Fairchild International Airport is expected to be lifted this week after 41 tall trees were removed from neighboring Lincoln Park this weekend.
Forty trees — mostly Douglas fir — ranging from 120- to 160-feet tall were taken down on Friday, said Jerry Ludke, Port of Port Angeles airport and marina manager.
One more tree, a cottonwood near the BMX track, came down Saturday, he said.
The trees’ growth had obstructed the glide path for Runway 26 at the airport across South L Street from the city-owned park to the point that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had issued the port, which owns the airport, a notice June 15 that instrument approaches to night landings on the runway would no longer be allowed.
“We wrote to the FAA via email this afternoon saying the trees were down,” Ludke said. “They had told us it takes three to four days, not counting weekends, to process that.”
So port officials believe that the FAA will lift the restriction by mid-week.
The work this weekend ” allows us to regain full use of the airport,” said John Nutter, director of finance and administration for the port.
Lincoln Park was closed during the contractor’s work on Friday. The city had announced that the park could remain closed to up to two weeks to allow the contractor, Blue Mountain Tree Service, time to cut up the trees and clean up debris.
Now the closure is expected to be only a week, with the park re-opening next weekend, Ludke said.
Not all the trees will be disposed of, according to city and port officials. Eight-foot sections of 12 trees were set aside for a possible future wood carving contest, as was suggested last week by Port Angeles Councilwoman Sissi Bruch.
The Port Angeles City Council had approved Monday the immediate removal of trees — then thought to be 38 — after port commissioners adopted a resolution June 30 declaring encroachment of trees into the airport’s glide path an emergency.
The number of trees grew slightly because the aerial survey picked up a couple of groups of trees as if they were single trees, according Nutter.
Another group of trees — for a total of about 74 — are within a foot or two of the glide path and need to come down, Nutter said.
The city council has authorized the city manager to negotiate with port officials about the manner in which the second groups of trees will be removed.
The 41 that came down this weekend “constituted an emergency because that caused the FAA order,” Nutter said.
“Airlift Northwest comes to the airport about once a week.”
The second group is not an emergency. They just need to come down in the near future, Nutter said.
“So we will go through the full public bid process to take care of some 35 trees and ground them down to stumps in phase two.”
The port will buy the trees from the city, said Corey Delikat, City of Port Angeles parks and recreation director.
The amount will be fair market value, he said; he didn’t know how much that is.
________
Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Jesse Major contributed to this story.
Justin Walz of Blue Mountain Tree Service, center, cuts limbs from a felled tree while co-worker Jeff Grall picks up loose branches on Friday in Lincoln Park in Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
