Iowa City tree removal won’t hurt raptor habitat

IOWA CITY - Iowa City officials have removed trees along the Iowa River Corridor Trail to protect trail users from falling trees and prevent erosion of the riverbed.

Some trail users have called with concerns about tree removal in an area where bald eagles and other raptors perch in tall trees awaiting their next swoop into the Iowa River, said Zac Hall, superintendent of parks and forestry for Iowa City. However, department officials talked with the Iowa Raptor Center before the cull and left many dead trees standing specifically for raptors, he said.

'The Raptor Center said we are not impacting habitat like folks might think,” Hall said.

The Iowa River Corridor trail, 13 miles that stretches from Coralville to the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area south of Iowa City. is a highly-traveled trail for cyclists and runners.

City officials noticed in late 2016 some of the trees lining the trail south of downtown Iowa City had suffered as past summer floods washed the soil away from their roots, Hall said. Some trees had fallen in the river, eroding parts of the riverbank, and others leaned over the trail, he said.

'There's a lot of poison ivy along that trail,” Hall said. 'Some trees are almost dead except for the poison ivy.”

City officials decided selective tree removal was needed and have been cutting down dead trees, volunteer trees and less-desirable species, such as box elder, Hall said. The plan is to replant native river species, including river birch and sycamore, as well as seed the banks so the soil won't wash out over the trail or into the river.

City officials are considering grasses with deeper roots to help with riverbank stabilization, Hall said. 'I know it looks pretty muddy and not inviting now, but in the long term it will be better.”

l Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com