EPHRAIM, Utah — Plans to remove dozens of aging trees on Main Street in Ephraim are now on hold indefinitely after community members pushed back.
The Utah Department of Transportation said the removals that began earlier this month were needed because the trees were dying and causing a potential safety hazard.
"Really, it was just a maintenance project. There's several trees that are dead and dying, and decaying, and every time there's a wind storm, they seem to put branches down on the highway below," explained UDOT spokesperson John Gleason. "And so several years ago, the city made plans for these trees to be taken down, and they actually planted new trees behind the existing trees."
However, some in the central Utah community in Sanpete County are concerned about the historic value of the trees.
"These trees are really sentimental to us, and it's bittersweet to us, mostly bitter," said Ephraim City Manager Katie Witt.
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According to Witt, Ephraim City is proud of its beautiful trees; dozens of them have lined the north part of their Main Street for decades, with some at the entrance to the historic cemetery having stood for more than a century.
"UDOT came and told us that... these trees are in their right of way, they would like to take them down and, you know, we knew it was coming," Witt said.
That's why the city planted a new row of trees years ago that are directly behind their larger counterparts that Witt says are simply past their prime.
"So we've known for decades that these trees were coming to the end of their lifespan," she said. "And as time has gone on, we've had to take some down; one here, one there, because they're rotting from the inside and because we knew they were reaching the end of their lifespan.
"We did proactively plant trees in the cemetery so that there wouldn't be a big hole when they did have to come down."
Several trees more than 60 years old that once stood along busy Highway 89 have already been removed, and there are no plans to remove any more, at least in the near future, according to state officials, who claimed they posted notice of the project. But when they started the tree removal, they heard complaints from the community, which made them take a closer look at the necessity of their removal.
"We're going to pause on the project right now, and just kind of work through any of those issues before we would proceed," said Gleason.
As of Wednesday, there is no timeline for when the project will restart.
