DEWITT — On Monday night the DeWitt school board decided to take another look at a proposal that would cull huge trees, some that could be 200 years old, in order to plug a $43,000 hole in the district’s budget. The issue will be discussed at a budget hearing June 11, starting at 7 p.m. in board building, 2957 Herbison Road.

Even with the profit from selling the trees, DeWitt schools will still face a $777,000 deficit next year, according to finance director Rob Spagnuolo, and must balance the budget by June 30.

Superintendent John Deiter said after the meeting that, although he saw thinning the trees as a “conservation approach” that will “benefit the overall health of the area,” the budget deficit played a role.
“Our budget definitely is a factor in our decision,” Deiter said. “We’re a people business (and want to make) wise use of natural resources to benefit the most people for the longest time.”

The trees, already marked for removal by a licensed forester with whom the district has signed a contract, stand in the tree lot nearest the school board building.

“These trees are absolutely unique in the state of Michigan, larger than those at Fenner Arboretum or MSU,” retired teacher Larry Arbanas told the board. “Please reconsider cutting them down for the price of a school bus.”

Phil Harner, also a retired teacher, said the tree lot is integral to DeWitt hands-on science classes and cautioned that loss of the canopy provided by the tallest trees will greatly affect everything that grows underneath.

Other residents said that the public is not even aware that the proposal is in the budget.

“It’s wrong that the public doesn’t know what your plans are,” said environmentalist Gloria Miller. “To take a living legacy and cut it down for money doesn’t make sense to me.”

Deiter, however, said he was surprised that people didn’t know the item was in the budget that had been discussed at recent open meetings.

“The perception is we rushed into it, but I don’t feel that was the case,” he said.
School board treasurer Sarah Hartman said that she had recently walked in the tree lot and felt that many of the trees marked for removal were already dead. She also said the family who sold the lot to the district had no objections to the culling.

It was clear that the district has no management plan for its three tree lots.

“We don’t have a policy for stewardship,” said Tom Schupbach. “If there are no guidelines/policies,” he wrote in a letter to the board, “does this mean it (tree removal) is at the complete discretion of an administrator, with no oversight, no community input?”

Schupbach also asked why the tree lots are less valuable than a library or science lab and noted that MSU has not harvested at all on its two lots. The district has a “unique resource” to show children what Michigan was like before it was settled, he wrote.

Board president Mark Kellogg assured the audience that their concerns would be taken seriously and Caroline Kressler said she would like to see a compromise.

“My primary concern is culling the forest for financial reasons,” said Kressler, who used to teach language arts lessons on Henry David Thoreau in the tree lot, after the meeting. “I’m hoping there’s some compromise that can be made.”

Deiter noted, however, that deciding to not cull the trees would mean renegotiating the contract with the forester, with the possibility that the district could wind up paying the total amount anyway.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20120607/DEWITTBATH02/306070060/DeWitt-schools-may-sell-giant-trees-help-budget?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE&nclick_check=1