While several large pieces of property are in process or set to soon be clear cut, community advocates are holding a meeting Thursday night after a request to the Town of Chapel Hill.
Approximately 15 acres at the corner of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard and Estes Drive are being clear cut of the trees that have been a hallmark of the property.
Estes Drive Clear Cutting. Photo via Blake Hodge.
That area is just up Estes Drive from another property that was recently clear cut in advance of a retirement residence development that is being built. And across Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard, there is approximately 40 acres owned by PH Craig spanning from Chapel Hill into Carrboro scheduled to be clear cut.
That prompted the Friends of the Bolin Creek group to approach the Chapel Hill Town Council with a request for the town to purchase all 77 acres of the Craig property.
Julie McClintock represented the Friends of the Bolin Creek in presenting the petition to the council last week.
“I know you all have a lot on your plate – you’re going to be hiring a new town manager; you’re dealing with a budget which will involve a tax increase – but why not try to take on something really challenging,” McClintock joked, “like acquiring PH Craig’s 77-acre tract.”
McClintock described the property as a beautiful piece of forest.
“If you go up Seawell School Road and park your car near the railroad tracks and walk in that way,” she said, “that forest is full of trails. It’s used every day of the week by runners, by cyclists, by people that just want to get in touch with nature.”
Friends of the Bolin Creek is hosting what is being described as a community forum on Thursday night. Mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro are both scheduled to attend the meeting, according to the group, along with town and county officials and forestry and water quality experts to talk about the impact of the clear cutting on the property, which has Bolin Creek winding through.
Estes Drive Clear Cutting. Photo via Blake Hodge.
The property is being clear cut in order to comply with timbering designations from the state, according to officials.
The aforementioned 15-acre site on Estes Drive is also a timbering designated property. Real estate personnel representing the property owner in that case said that nails were discovered hit into the trees on the property in what they said they believed was an attempt to sabotage the harvesting. Crews had to be more cautious during the harvesting in order to avoid potential injury to workers or damage to equipment, which the Durham Herald-Sun recently detailed.
Thursday’s community meeting is scheduled for Smith Middle School at 7 p.m.
support the bolin creek initiative!
Once this has started, you will discover that attempts to stop it will always require too much time to undo the damage of greed. The criminals are way ahead of you.
R Bowman