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RANGELEY — An extensive tree-removal and replanting project on half an acre at Cupsuptic Lake Park and Campground by the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust is underway, which will make the park safer for those who use it, the heritage trust said in a news release.
The project at the site in Adamstown Plantation began with removal of the trees in December, and re-vegetation has started this spring.
The heritage trust bought a total of 110 acres of land on Cupsuptic Lake, including the 16-acre Cupsuptic Lake Park and Campground, in 2006, assuming management of the campground in 2011. Through the use of public and private grant funding, the entire campground has been either renovated or reconstructed over the years.
Beginning in 2012, tree fall from storms created a safety risk, including a tree going down on a tent or trailer at least once in each of the past four years, the trust said. The majority of the trees on site are Norway spruce that were planted plantation-style approximately 50 years ago, and the age of the trees combined with soil compaction from recreational use combined to create a high level of tree mortality, particularly on the half-acre high-risk area that was to the south/southeast, where most summer storms originate from.
Trees that seemed dead, diseased or dying were removed before each camping season, but the organization, in consultation with two licensed foresters and two licensed arborists, agreed that safety would be improved by removing about 150 trees — most of the trees in the half-acre area — followed by replanting.
The trust worked with staff at the Maine Land Use Planning Commission over a period of eight months to get permit approval and develop a plan for re-vegetating the site, and the trees were removed in December.
This spring, re-vegetation will include grinding the tree stumps while preserving the root structures to stabilize soil, spreading soil on top of the root systems, planting 150 saplings that will be a mixture of three species and have heights of eight to 10 feet, and planting shrubs along the western shoreline to stabilize a heavily eroded area.
“These improvements will not only improve the safety conditions for guests at the campground, they will also allow for better management of foot and vehicle traffic, reducing soil impacts and provide for much improved visual screening of the campground from the lake that the former tree species did not afford,” the release said.
