Recent wind storms wreak havoc on trees throughout Mill Creek Park

A drive through Mill Creek Park on Thursday showed tree damage and sawed off logs along the sides of roads. The last two Saturdays did a number on Mill Creek’s trees. All the roads are back open, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Mill Creek MetroParks operations director Justin Rogers said they’re seeing damage all over the place, including the Par 3 golf course, where one example was a damaged fence.

“Comes down, damages it. Fence line, guard rail posts, sidewalks,” he said.

Twenty-five trees fell on the Par 3 golf course, the scars of which were everywhere, and this was just one section of the park.

“For instance, last Sunday we had the Mill Creek Distance Classic on that Sunday. We had crews out all day Saturday and the early morning hours of Sunday just opening up the roads,” Rogers said.

Driving south, all along the way, there were fresh logs along the roads, and they haven’t even started clearing the trails.

“There’s actually a fifth one that’s buried back in there,” Rogers said.

At the Lake Newport wetlands, the men’s restroom was heavily damaged by a spruce tree, though, the restroom was to be replaced this year anyway. Of all the trees that fell, a lot of them were spruce.

“Yes, I think this was probably the number one species that we’ve seen impacted by the winds,” Rogers said.

Along West Golf Drive, near the main golf course, were two large spruces that were knocked over, their root bases pointing 12 feet skyward.

Rogers knows of 200 trees that had to be dealt with, but how many were lost throughout the entire park?

“I couldn’t even fathom a guess,” Rogers said.

All the wood from the downed trees will be sold or donated. The trees deep in the woods will not be moved.

“I think back-to-back like this is probably more damage and impactful that I’ve seen in 20 years,” Rogers said.

Rogers says Mill Creek MetroParks has used 900 man hours so far dealing with the storm damage. He wanted to thank the park employees who worked diligently to get it all cleared.

The Mill Creek Metroparks Foundation is looking for help to reforest the park after hundreds of trees were lost due to the recent storms. The park system is hoping to replace them with help from donations.

A Tree Trust has been established, and you can make donations online at lovemillcreek.org.

Patty Coller contributed to this report.

 

Read the original article at WKBN.