More than 1,000 oak trees damaged by gypsy moths in Clarence Schock Memorial Park should be cut down this winter, the park board has unanimously decided.
But timbering opponents say they will ask the Lebanon County Commissioners to ax the plan.
"Unfortunately," said board member Chuck Allwein, "the gypsy moth damage is in probably the heaviest-used part of the park."
He said the ravaged white and chestnut oaks cover 67½ acres in a rough triangle bounded by the entrance monument, environmental education center on Pinch Road and the observation tower.
Foresters have painted slashes on the trunks to be felled.
Allwein said about 1,600 timber-quality trees will be removed, including 868 from trail corridors and 739 from the interior of the 11,110-acre forest near Mount Gretna.
Allwein said the cut is a compromise in that gypsy moths have devastated a total of 114.3 acres of the park.
About 47 acres will be left to deteriorate naturally as an "experiment," Allwein said.
The timber sale is expected to bring in around $50,000, according to Allwein, who added that not harvesting the oaks would be like "throwing money, so to speak, down the drain."
Allwein said logging proceeds would be used to reforest Governor Dick with native plants, install fencing to keep deer from gobbling up seedlings and, possibly, gypsy moth spraying.
But members of the board's environmental education committee say heavy logging equipment would destroy the fragile habitat for salamanders and wildflowers and take away nurse logs that shelter wildlife and enrich the soil.
"There are lots of problems here," said committeewoman Susan Wheeler of Lebanon. "They're going to open up the forest to even more [invasive species]."
Bill Knapp, a forest advocate from Lititz, said he worries that log-dragging operations will alter historic park terrain, such as the old narrow-gauge railroad corridor.
Allwein said timbering would take place when the ground is hard, and that the landscape would be restored.
Environmentalists have fought the idea of logging for years.
Now, they say, the park board is using insect infestation as an excuse to take down trees.
"We're going to appeal" the board decision, added Wheeler, who said she expects to talk Dec. 4 with Lebanon County Commissioners William G. Carpenter, Larry E. Stohler and Jo Ellen Litz.
The commissioners have a say in the management of Governor Dick, as does the Clarence Schock Memorial Foundation.
Three members of the foundation in Mount Joy serve on the park board, according to Allwein, who said the board also intends to meet soon with the commissioners.
"We are getting hammered on it from the environmental folks, and I understand their passion," Allwein said.
"But the fact is it's not like we're going in and harvesting live trees. ... These trees are dead."
Environmentalists agree that trees posing an immediate threat to trail users should be removed. But they say they aren't so sure all the earmarked trees are dead.
Wheeler says money could be raised through ways other than timber sales.
Knapp contends available funding should be used to improve the forest and beef up environmental education, not for "frivolous" additions, such as the park's new stone fireplace and pavilion.
The underlying issue: whether forest management should emphasize recreation or nature, like world-famous Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Berks County.
Recreation, says Allwein, who noted that Governor Dick is much smaller than Hawk Mountain but has many more trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding.
Nature, says Knapp, who says a more passive approach would protect the area's fragile ecology and make it more valuable to human visitors.
"They aren't making forests like Governor Dick any more," Knapp said.
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
