Downtown Cedar Rapids trees removed, just before Arbor Day

CEDAR RAPIDS - The timing wasn't exactly ideal when almost a dozen trees were cut down Thursday morning in downtown Cedar Rapids as part of a tree replacement program.

Pam Hinman, spokeswoman for the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, said all 11 trees that were removed will be replaced, along with two more being planted in open spots. But that was little consolation for environmentalists and downtown workers who saw the stumps most noticeably on Second Street SE, where eight trees were cut between Second and Third avenues.

“It doesn't seem like good timing for tree removal, since this is Earth Week and Arbor Day is tomorrow,” said Shannon Ramsay, founder and CEO of the Marion-based Trees Forever. And just last week Cedar Rapids was given the Tree City USA award, which noted that the city provided an outstanding example for other Iowa communities.

Hinman said seven of the removed trees were ash, two were locusts and two were maples. New ones, which crews from Hughes Nursery will plant in coming days, represent six different varieties of maple, elms and one to two oak trees, she said.

City Arborist Todd Fagan said the city owns the trees, but the Economic Alliance maintains the trees and created the replacement program.

“Typically, it's a lot more spread out than this,” he said.

The program is separate from a city plan that calls for replacing about 110 ash trees annually, to diversify trees in anticipation of the destructive emerald ash borer. Fagan said an estimated 20 to 30 percent of Cedar Rapids' trees are ash.

Evidence of the borer was detected on a Mississippi River island in 2010 in Allamakee County in northeast Iowa, but traps have found no evidence of the pest further infiltrating Iowa. Tree experts recommend homeowners allow their ash trees to grow, as there is no immediate threat.

Fagan said he had not seen the trees before they were removed, but he was told they were in declining health. They were likely about 20 years old, he said, although ring counts of the stumps indicated the trees may have been older. And Hinman said the trees were either dead, dying or had outgrown their tree pits.

Fagan said the trees will be replaced by younger ones, about 2 inches in diameter.

Budo Heder watched out of a ground-level window as a tree was removed in front of his business, Downtown Tailoring, on Second Street SE.

“It wasn't completely dead,” he said. “I hope they replace them with new ones.”