By Brian Mittge bmittge@chronline.com, Saturday, May 17, 2003, The Chronicle
In an ironic environmental twist, an effort to clean up the murky Chehalis River looks as though it will mean the cutting down of up to 20 acres of oaks, an increasingly rare tree in Lewis County.
The scattered stands of Oregon white oaks are north of state Route 6, across Interstate 5 and the river from downtown Chehalis. Along with a picturesque red barn, they are casualties of a city plan to build a new sewage treatment plant, and to use high-tech poplar trees to get rid of the treated wastewater.
The oaks and bare agricultural ground will be converted into a plantation of the fast-growing poplar trees, planted in rows like corn. The trees are scientifically designed to soak up treated wastewater as an alternative to dumping it into the Chehalis River.
The city's plan for the 200-acre high-tech poplar plantation - the biggest in the Northwest - is nearly complete, but some local residents wish it would include saving the oak groves.
"We used to have many stands. It went along with the prairie ecology," said Margaret Rader, a leader in the Chehalis River Council, a Centralia-based environmental organization that has also advocated cleaning up the Chehalis River.
"They're a long-lived tree. If you cut them down, there's not going to be another oak grove there, that's for sure," she said.
Many of the oaks on what is called the Hamilton property are a hundred years old, but some are probably much older, according to U.S. Forest Service oak researcher Dave Peter, based out of Olympia.
In response to what he says have been "a few" similar citizen comments, Chehalis Wastewater Superintendent Patrick Wiltzius told the city council last month that the city can't afford the cost or land needed to save the oaks.
Land now used for pasture will be bulldozed into a dozen "management units" - stands of poplar separated by 2-foot-high berms that keep the wastewater from flowing off of the property.
Building the management units around the oaks would be complex and expensive, and would hurt the poplar project, Wiltzius said.
"We believe we're performing an environmental benefit," he said, by taking crop land and planting trees on it.
Except for a stand in the northeast corner, all the existing oaks are smack dab in the middle of the area that will be leveled and bermed, he said.
The stands could harbor disease or rodents, and building pipes, roads and berms around the native stands would be unwise, Wiltzius said.
"It would add considerable cost to the project," he said.
Ditto for the barn. The city wanted to preserve it, but decided it would cost more to renovate than to demolish and replace, he said.
Preservation possibilities Wiltzius said there are about 190 oak trees, scattered into four areas, on the Hamilton Meadows property north of state Route 6 and east of Scheuber Road.
Although these northern oaks are scheduled to be removed this summer, the city and the Chehalis River Council are talking about the possibility of creating a nature reserve on oak groves in remote parts of the same property along the Chehalis River.
"It would never replace the ones that they're cutting down," said Rader, but "it is something we're definitely interested in." A Chehalis River site could also be part of a greater use of the entire river for recreation, from kayaking to hiking trails, she said.
The southernmost grove eyed for possible preservation is in a swampy riverside area that the city didn't need, but had to buy because it was included with the desirable acreage to the north, said Wiltzius.
Whatever happens, at least one oak will be preserved. The "lone oak" that is highly visible to state Route 6 traffic is protected by a clause in the sale contract between the city and the Hamilton family.
Although poplar trees will quickly cloak its crooked branches from popular viewing, the tree will stand in perpetuity.
A former farm owner's remains were cremated and spread around the tree, giving it sentimental value, according to Marilyn Hamilton, whose late husband Hal's family has farmed the land for half a century.
The lay of the land The city bought 400 acres from the Hamiltons early this year for $1.7 million, after more than a year of negotiations.
About 250 acres are to the north of state Route 6, with another 150 acres to the south from the highway down to the Chehalis River, but excluding an oxbow, which was sold to another person for a recreational area.
The northern portion will all go for the poplar plantation, but about 20 percent will be unusable because of setbacks and other limitations.
That leaves around 200 acres, which is almost exactly how much the city needs to plant with 55,000 poplars for its future needs, said Wiltzius.
During the summers, the city produces about 1 million gallons of wastewater per season, but the city's plan would accommodate future growth by building capacity to handle up to 3.5 million gallons.
The city needs 176 acres of trees to drink up the water for current needs, and could need up to 276 acres for future needs, he said.
Planting 200 acres of trees now would allow an even crop rotation scheme for harvesting trees by their 15th year, he said.
The city has a little wiggle room. Of the 150 acres to the south, about 40 acres are suitable for the poplar plantation.
It would be expensive to bore a line under state Route 6 to use that property, Wiltzius said, so it will be left for future expansion only if needed.
Growing in popularity The hybrid poplars Chehalis has in mind come from a scientist's laboratory. They are especially bred to tolerate flooding in the winter and to gulp water during the summer.
Washington State University forestry professor Jon Johnson, of the university's Puyallup research station, helped create some of the nine poplar varieties Chehalis will plant on its property.
The hybrids are a cross between female black cottonwoods, native to Washington, and male eastern cottonwoods from the other side of the country.
One acre of these thirsty hybrid trees can soak up a million gallons of water a year.
Most of the hybrids planted will be males, but a few management units will have females, which, like native cottonwoods, produce a June snowfall of cottony seeds.
Male poplars will be planted along the roadside management units on Hamilton Meadows to shield passers-by from the seeds, said Johnson.
He said there is a minimal chance, perhaps 1 percent, that the hybrid seeds would colonize elsewhere or would create crossbreeds with native cottonwoods.
He said Chehalis will have the largest poplar plantation for municipal wastewater in the Northwest, and perhaps in the country.
In addition to their legendary thirst for the nitrogen-rich treated municipal wastewater, poplars can go from twig to tree in no time.
"These hybrids tend to be some of the ... fastest growing tree species in a temperate region," Johnson said.
By fast, he means a one-foot poplar "whip" stuck in the ground can grow 15 feet in its first year.
The Jack-and-the-beanstalk speed of growth means that even if the oaks and red barn were preserved, passing motorists wouldn't be able to see them within a few years, said Chehalis Mayor Bob Spahr.
He said the oaks are in the way for the city project, but don't assume he's a fan of a city-owned poplar grove.
"I think it's a total waste of ground, honestly, but the DOE says we have to do it. A corn field is the highest and best use," he said.
Spahr has waged a low-level war for 12 years with the Washington Department of Ecology over its requirement that the city remove its wastewater from the Chehalis River.
A study of the Chehalis River found that during the summer, the river has no capacity to handle the wastewater, which even in its cleanest state still heats up the stream and robs it of oxygen.
Both Centralia and Chehalis are building new wastewater treatment plants for about $30 to $40 million each.
Chehalis will pump its water from a new plant near Chehalis Rentals underneath the Chehalis River to the Hamilton Meadows property.
Centralia is currently laying pipes down Harrison Avenue to its own new wastewater treatment plant, which will also use former farmland. Centralia will continue dumping its treated wastewater into the Chehalis River, but has enough land to also create a poplar plantation if rules change.
Spahr, although defending the city's plans for the poplar plantation, still thinks it's unnecessary.
"Will the river be any better? The answer is no. It may be worse because there aren't 1.5 million gallons in there during low flow periods," he said.
Brian Mittge covers politics, the environment and Lewis County government for The Chronicle. He may be reached by e-mail at bmittge@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8237.
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