The Island County Commissioners’ decision to have a logging company evaluate which live trees to remove from Rhododendron Park is like asking the fox which chickens need to be left in the yard for his nightly stalking.

To ask Washington Timberland Management to choose trees that would make them less money than the healthy old growth ones they picked is a no brainer. It would be contrary to good business to take less than the most profitable and they did just that. Having to settle for less money than they were led to believe they would make, most likely they will not do this job with the care that is needed. Only a tree surgeon could do a proper job.

No mention of the care to be taken to not damage the “understory,” i.e. those beautiful rare rhododendrons the park is named after.

The vegetation ecologist promised was not there on the walk through. The last minute call to Marianne Edain to drop everything in order to show up on three hours’ notice was rude as it takes an hour for her to get there from South Whidbey.

You may not have seen healthy trees that have been marked for death but photos taken by Steve Erickson show something different.

What are the qualifications used to determine that Island County Budget Director Elaine Marlow, Lee McFarland or the commissioners could tell a healthy tree from a damaged one?

Why is it that McFarland says less than 5 percent will be cut but Operations Manager Ron Godwin of Washington Timberland Management Northwest says 30 percent of the trees will be removed?

Rhododendron Park is not a tree farm for the county to profit from but a county park with a real forest with rare understory plants to be kept as close to natural as possible for future generations. You all may see it as a stand of trees, but it is much more than that. It is a very small slice of forest of what that part of Island County was like before any of us were even born and it should stay that way long after our youngest grandchild has grandchildren.

Theresa Marie Gandhi

Clinton