8 The Dallas Post
Friday, August 8, 2003
Clearcut
(continued from page 1)
about it,” asked Tupper. “But
how can this happen?”
According to Len Kozick, Tax
Collector and Zoning Officer
for Dallas Township, the prop-
erty was part of what was com-
monly called the old McHenry
estate. For generations the
property has been wooded with
meandering trails. Kozick said
Thomas Dombroski now owns
the property.
Kozick said Dombroski isn’t
required to submit plans to the
township to cut down trees, un-
til he wants to either sell por-
tions of the property off or con-
struct something on it.
“He wants to develop it into
building ‘lots, he hasn’t filed
anything with the township,”
Kozick said.
Kozick said tax maps indi-
cate that Dombroski also owns
the township park, but, he said,
he didn’t feel that could be ac-
curate.
The concerned neighbors say
with the trees being cut down,
the neighborhood suffers more
than just an aesthetic loss.
They said for generations chil-
dren in the area have spent’
much of their time in the
woods riding bikes on the trails
and catching crawdads in a
stream. Many families enjoyed
simply walking on trails under
the trees.
Also disturbing to the resi-
dents is the resulting devasta-
tion to wildlife. At any given
time, they said a fawn and doe
can be seen wandering around
the = now-cleared area and
hawks circling as they search
for their nests.
In addition, most of the
cleared area is on the side of a
hill at the bottom of which is a
stream that feeds into Toby’s
Creek. The residents raised the
concern of erosion from the hill
into the stream.
Mark Carmon, DEP
spokesperson, said at this point
no permits are required from
DEP. If at some point the devel-
oper needs to go into the
stream or build a road over the
stream, permits would be need-
ed. He did add that clearing
trees so near a stream may re-
quire that the developer obtain
an erosion and sedimentation
plan from the Luzerne County
Conservation District prior to
clearing.
Such a permit is designed to
prevent or minimize erosion
into the stream, he said.
“With rain like we've been
having they could get soil
washing off (the hill) and im-
pacting the stream,” Carmon
said.
Dombroski said he pur-
chased the nine acres two years
ago. He said the property was
already divided into nine
parcels approximately 100’
“. it doesn’t seem
like we live
in the same place
anymore.”
Bob Tupper
Sago Street resident
wide by 200° deep when he
bought it.
In response to residents’ con-
cerns about the trees being cut
down Dombroski said, “(That
property) has been up for sale
for 10 years. If someone wanted
to buy it, they could have.”
He said after paying taxes
and insurance on the property
for the past two years, it had
become time to do something
with it.
“You can’t expect people to
hold onto land for the birds and
the bees,” he said.
Dombroski said he cleared
the property to get it ready for
sale. He said he intends to sell
each plot, filled and ready to
build on, for $35,000.
There is a portion of the
property from where Route 309
and Sago Street meet, up to the
first road off of Sago, that he
said is considered a park. Dom-
broski said there may be one
tree in there he intends to cut
out for lumber, but the rest he
plans to donate to the town-
ship. He also said he doesn’t in-
tend to cut any trees at the oth-
er end of the property, near the
township’s park.
Dombroski said he has of-
fered the property to a resident
of the community for a reduced
price and that the price will be
effective for any interested per-
son from the community. He
conceded that he would per-
haps make more money by sell-
ing each property individually,
but that the cost of preparing
the lots for sale is expected to
be high.
In the meantime, the group
of residents just wants to see
the cutting stopped. There are
a few trees left at the top of the
property along Sago Street and
they would like to see them
stay there.
Kristy Taylor, who lives
across from the property, said
she would love to see the land .
purchased by someone in the
community who would return
it to the way it was. :
“Youre looking at it all cut
down, but you know what
guys? It can be replanted. We
can save the stream and we can
replant,” she told the group of
residents.
“Maybe it doesn’t look like
much to some people, but it
was a nice place to go,” said
Tupper.
Moore and Wyda married
Hilda Moore, Dallas, and Thomas Wyda, Tunkhannock,
were recently married at East Dallas U.M. Church.
The ceremony was performed by Rev. Larry Michael-Rush.
An open house will be held August 23 from 2 to 6 p.m. at
the bride’s home, 1336 Ransom Rd., Dallas.
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In September 2003
Loggers removed
lumber from the
former McHenry
estate along
Sago Street in
Dallas Township
last week.
The land has
been clearcut in
anticipation as
sale for building
lots.
POST PHOTO/
RON BARTIZEK
By ERIN YOUNGMAN
Post Staff
DALLAS TWP. — Clearcut-
ting trees affects more than just
the view from neighboring pic-
ture windows.
“There’s a lot more at stake
than anyone realizes,” said Joe
Wenzel, Conservation Officer
and Education Supervisor for
the Northeast Region of the
Pennsylvania Game Commis-
sion.
It’s a story Wenzel said he’s
heard time and time again. The
clearcutting of acres of trees,
the disbelief of the local resi-
dents and obvious loss of habi-
tat for the area’s wildlife.
“People don’t give it ‘much
consideration until it happens
in their own backyard,” he said.
When residents around Sago
Street in Dallas Township ‘saw
century old trees being cut
down on the old McHenry es-
tate property, they said they
called just about every agency
‘they could think of to find out
if the cutting was legal, from
SE Ra
I've read enough literature to know that
the rapid rate of destruction of property
is an astronomical figure in PA.”
Joe Wenzel, Conservation Officer
Pennsylvania Game Commission
the Department of Environ-
mental Protection to the De-
partment of Forestry.
Wenzel is not able to offer
much assurance. “There’s noth-
ing we can do as an agency, to
stop something like that and
there’s nothing we can do for
the wildlife,” he said.
“In Pennsylvania unless
there’s particular restrictions
on the property, these people
can do whatever they want to
the land.”
Residents have said the
wildlife is conspicuously dis-
placed and they are alarmed at
the sight of large and small ani-
mals wandering the area look-
ing co sed.
“When someone applies fora
SERRA
ad dds FN GE
building permit, ideally in a
perfect world, the local govern-
ment should look at the big pic-
ture — but often they look at
the bottom line,” said Wenzel.
In the case of the Sago Street
clearcutting, the township did-
n’t have a decision to make, be-
cause according to township
regulations, the owner doesn’t
have to file a permit application
until he wants. to remove
stumps from the ground.
Wenzel said the cutting has
major implications for not just
the wildlife, but the water table
below as well.
The deer that have been seen
wandering around with young
are just the most ‘obvious signs
of the clearcutting’s effect on
Cr io
Wildlife are displaced when trees are cut
the local ecosystem.
“This happens every day in
Pennsylvania. I've read enough
literature to know that the rap-
id rate of destruction of proper-
ty is an astronomical figure in
PA,” Wenzel said.
Wenzel remembers when the
area that is now the First Union
Arena was cleared and four
bears that lived there didn’t
know quite what to do.
He said for some time the
bears hung around the work
site. He would receive calls
from concerned people who
asked him if he could relocate
the bears.
He would say to them, “What
do you want me to do with
them? This is their home.”
He said just as in the case on
Sago Street, most of the time
there is no way to move the af-
fected animals.
He said eventually animals
will relocate, if they are able to
do so. “It’s basically move or be
eaten,” he added.
“It sounds like gloom and
doom, and really it is.”
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