Logan City cuts down Canyon Road trees
Logan residents held a vigil on Nov. 16 to say goodbye to the historic 100-year-old ash trees on Canyon Road.
The ash trees were part of the group of trees removed as part of the construction for the First Dam Tank & Pipeline project, which the Canyon Road improvement is part of. The City of Logan hired the company Diamond Tree Experts to cut down all the trees. The process started on Nov. 17.
The ash trees have been a source of controversy between the City of Logan and its residents, with many residents wishing another solution could be found to avoid cutting down the ash trees.
Alanna Nafziger, Logan resident and 2025 mayoral candidate, said it was really hard to say goodbye to the trees.
“Emotionally, it’s just really hard because they didn’t consider public input, you know, so I guess I just feel like there’s a lot of grief coming up for me and other residents around this process,” Nafziger said.
Nafziger said the removal of the trees felt like a loss of part of Logan’s history.
“They’re an incredible part of our heritage,” Nafziger said. “It ties to the establishment of Logan as a city, and so it really connects us to that. They have all this cultural value. I’ve even wondered if my ancestors had a hand in planting them, you know, which is really cool, but besides that, they’re providing all these ecosystem services we won’t get back from new trees.”
Nafziger also said she felt the city wasn’t properly balancing the existing residents’ needs with the need for future growth to Logan’s infrastructure and felt this was a continual pattern she sees from the city.
Mike Johnson, member of the Logan Municipal Council, said the concerns residents have had about the ash trees were heard.
“I think a lot of people are concerned that we’re not listening or that we’re not trying to find solutions,” Johnson said. “I can promise that I’ve been listening. Sometimes, just because we don’t agree on the outcome of an issue, doesn’t mean that we weren’t listening and we weren’t trying to work through the process as best as possible. It’s an unfortunate situation, but it’s an infrastructure project that needs to be completed by the city and in the long run will be for the betterment of our community.”
Logan is required by the state to have certain amounts of drinking water in storage, and it is currently deficient. The First Dam Tank & Pipeline project aims to ensure the city is in compliance.
Johnson said it would be much more expensive to have the waterline detour to avoid the trees, and even if this happened, the city would still need to cut down other trees on alternate routes.
“Our estimates show anywhere between roughly 2.5-6 million [dollars] an increase to avoid the ash trees,” Johnson said. “You’re pushing into a 5-10% budget increase for that on the project, so I understand that people are frustrated about the ash trees, but at the end of the day, the increase in cost and budget to go around the ash trees was a bit unfeasible, in my opinion.”
Johnson said he knows this will be a big change, and the council is optimistic the contractors hired on for the improvement plan, J-U-B ENGINEERS, will do a good job putting the road back together and inserting nice landscaping in a way the community will love.
“Will it be different? It will, but I think we can still get it to a point where it has a unique feel and still is a good place for people to love living on Canyon Road,” Johnson said.
Nafziger said she felt even though it’s a well-engineered solution, the project fails to value the landscape or the cultural context of the trees.
“I think that when you don’t value those things, you’re still paying the cost of them, but you just are kind of ignoring it,” Nafziger said. “So, it’s like a well-engineered harm to the community.”