Back Timberlane fields chatter begins again in Hopewell Valley

Cedar tree removal project spurs renewed interest.

By John Tredrea
   Several weeks ago, the Hopewell Valley Regional School District announced that 200 to 300 cedar trees on the Back Timberlane tract will be cut down, at no cost to the district, by David Robinson, resident and proprietor of Natural Edge.
   Mr. Robinson will harvest the trees from the property and recycle them into furniture, fencing and architectural landscape pieces.
   The announcement piqued the interest of several residents enough to bring them to the May 19 school board meeting. At that meeting, Michael Way resident Michael Braun wanted to know if the trees Mr. Robinson will cut represented most of the trees on the Back Timberlane site.
   Far from it, replied board member Steve Wood and Superintendent Robert Sopko. "They’re a small fraction of the total number of trees on the site," Dr. Sopko said.
   "And most of the trees that will be cut down are dead," Mr. Wood added. He added that Central High School’s Envirothon club had inventoried the cedar trees at Back Timberlane recently, to see which ones have bird nests in them. Those that have nests will be marked and will not be cut down.
   Pennington-Harbourton Road resident Karen Evanko told the board that water running off several existing athletic fields at Timberlane inundates her property during heavy storms. She wanted to know when this situation would be rectified.
   John Nemeth, school district business administrator and school board secretary, replied that a stormwater management plan that includes elimination of most or all of the runoff onto Ms. Evanko’s land is part of the nine-field Back Timberlane plan that was approved by the Hopewell Township Planning Board about a year and a half ago. However, a $2.7 million referendum that would have provided funding for the fields was rejected by the voters subsequent to the Planning Board approval.
   Mr. Robinson’s agreement with the school board and the Recreation Foundation of Hopewell Valley, Inc. is estimated to save the district $5,000 for this phase of the project, according to Dr. Sopko, who said recently that the trees slated for removal will be pretagged and approved by the district under the supervision of Hill Environmental Group.
   "The clearing of land is the first phase of this approved and permitted project and we are very grateful for David Robinson’s environmentally creative contribution," the superintendent said added.
   The district currently is trying to raise money for Back Timberlane by various means, such as private donations, such as the one from Mr. Robinson.
   At the May 19 school board meeting, board President William Hills said it is impossible to predict when the district will have raised enough money to build Back Timberlane.