400 floodway trees to be cut

The city of Colorado Springs will cut down more than 400 trees this winter in the Templeton Gap Floodway to protect property owners and the city should flooding occur in the area.

The action by the Stormwater Enterprise comes after the Army Corps of Engineers decided the regulated portion of the floodway extends east of Union Boulevard. Previously, the Corps identified the floodway as extending from Union Boulevard west to Monument Creek.

The area where the cutting will occur is essentially between Templeton Gap Road south of Austin Bluffs Parkway and the east side of North Union Boulevard, near the Colorado Springs Country Club.

Trees growing in or on the banks of the floodway, or levee, can undermine its ability to contain and channel water because the roots weaken the soil and provide a path for seepage, the city says.

If the trees aren't cut and the levee were to fail the Corps' inspection, the city would not be eligible for federal money to repair damage caused by flooding. It would also require some property owners below the floodway to buy flood insurance, and it would raise the rates of those who already have the insurance, city officials say.

Bard Lower, operations manager of the city street division, said many of the trees to be taken down are Russian olive and Chinese elm, which he described as "junk trees." There are some large cottonwoods, however, that must be dropped. He said most of those trees are big, but it is a species of trees not known for deep, robust roots.

Lower said the Stormwater Enterprise will plant new trees in the area but out of the floodway next fall. It won't try to match the number of trees taken down, but will plant better-quality trees that provide the same amount of canopy as those cut.

Lower said the city will survey the bird population in the area in December, but there is no indication it is home to threatened or endangered species.

The enterprise will soon take bids from private contractors to do the work.

The Templeton Gap Floodway, a 120-foot-wide channel leading to Monument Creek, was built by the Army Corps in 1949 to handle storm runoff. Lower said the floodway protects homes that are at or below the level of water that can flow during flooding.

The Stormwater Enterprise had to cut hundreds of trees in the western portion of the floodway between Nevada Avenue and Union in 2006 as a result of beefed- up levee inspections after Hurricane Katrina caused levees to fail in 2005 in New Orleans.