Tree removal nearly complete in Grandview Forest Park

The tree removal project at Grandview Forest Park is nearly complete, with only four diseased trees remaining for removal.

The park was originally closed Aug. 17 after nearly 30 trees were identified as infected with a fungus commonly known as laminated root rot.

The project — originally expected to be completed by Sept. 20 — was delayed due to problems with the original contractor and was put on hold while a new contractor was hired by the city.

Public Works Director Jeff Langhelm said that the remaining work on the park involves a two-step process: the first was to hire another contractor to remove the remaining dangerous trees and the second is to hire another contractor to perform revegitation of the park.

“We’re trying to be as efficient as possible on this project to get the trees down and the park revegitated,” Langhelm said.

The agreement with the original contractor was terminated after they failed to meet the terms of the contract, he said.

A new contract was approved by Gig Harbor City Council on Oct. 26 to Woodland Industries in the amount of $5,414 to complete the project, as previously reported by The Gateway in October.

The most important focus, according to Langhelm, is removing the dangerous trees so that the park is safe for visitors again.

And safety is a concern because park visitors have ignored the closure signs and orange construction fencing that city crews have installed around entrances to the park.

“People would walk around and ignore the signs,” Langhelm said.

City crews took down the first five trees that were considered the most dangerous. Along with the Department of Natural Resources and the arborist employed by the City of Gig Harbor, a third arborist from Thundering Oak Enterprises was brought in to assess the trees in the park.

Grandview Forest Park has had problems with laminated root rot for 20 or 30 years, said Bryce Landrud, a certified arborist with Thundering Oak.

Laminated root rot is a native fungus that lives in the Pacific Northwest soil and specifically targets Douglas Fir trees. The trees become affected either by losing enough strength and the fungus gets a chance to infect the root system; or the amount of fungus in the soil surrounding the tree increases enough to overwhelm the tree.

“The root system holding the tree up is being devoured,” Landrud said.

The fungus specifically targets the structural support of the tree, which leaves just a matter of time before it will tip over.

“There’s a whole host of reasons a tree with laminated root rot can come down,” Langhelm said.

Landrud agreed, explaining that the loss of root stability can result in an infected tree toppling — even without the catalyst of a windstorm.

“With cases like Grandview, it’s a better safe-than-sorry approach,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to stay ahead of this.”

With 80 percent of the trees in Grandview unaffected by the disease, the outlook is positive for the project’s completion. The final stage of the project is the revegitation of the park, where native plants will be used to fill damage left along the park’s paths that was caused by the original contractor, Langhelm said.

“We hope to have the park fully reopened in in early 2016,” he added.

The city has yet to hire a contractor to conduct the revegitation of the park.

Grandview Forest Park is located adjacent to the Gig Harbor Civic Center at 3510 Grandview Street.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Tree removal nearly complete in Grandview Forest Park."