Community Watchdog

Robert Henck wants the Town of Brookhaven to replant the areas where trees were leveled.

A few months ago, Brookhaven Town leveled two acres of oak trees on Sunset Drive in North Shirley for Calabro Airport use. It looks like a war zone. People are using it as a drag strip, garbage dump, etc. Where you had the trees as a buffer from William Floyd Parkway to cut traffic noise, you now have an amplifier. The town should have planted small trees or hedges and other landscaping and grass.

The town had no choice about leveling the trees, town spokesman Tom Burke said. It was done to meet the Federal Aviation Administration’s requirements regarding trees and how high they can be in relation to airports.

The town program is on-going, Burke said. More trees will come down, but when the program is completed, there’s a stabilization plan to plant grass or other groundcover. Burke said the town would have to explore whether the FAA would approve planting anything more extensive.