Plan to down trees has officials worried

A spokesman says the natural-gas transportation company will be selective.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- State forestry and parks officials discussed their concerns Wednesday with officials of a company that plans to start cutting trees from around 10 gas wells and a pipeline in a state forest in north-central Ohio.
Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. has told the state it will start cutting within four weeks, and state officials are unsure if they have the legal authority to stop it.
The Charleston, W.Va.-based company says it has the right to clear trees within 300 feet of its 54 natural gas wells in Mohican State Forest -- but doesn't plan to go that far.
"We're going to selectively cut trees that pose an imminent danger" to the wells, said Kelly Merritt, a spokesman for the natural gas transportation company, which is separate from the Columbia Gas of Ohio utility. Both are subsidiaries of Merrillville, Ind.-based NiSource Inc.
Columbia Transmission also plans to cut an additional 10 feet on either side of two miles of pipeline running through the forest, creating a 50-foot-wide path. It has started clearing along pipeline on private land surrounding the forest.
The company has cleared 21 acres throughout the 4,500-acre forest and 1,300-acre Mohican State Park that follows the Mohican River through the forest.
What's being done
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources asked Wednesday for a written work plan, to include a public hearing. Agency attorneys were reviewing the company's lease for access to its wells on public land to determine if the 300-foot clearance could be challenged or negotiated, agency spokeswoman Jane Beathard said.
If the company exercised the rights it claims for all the wells, two of which are in the park, it would clear 360 acres, or 8 percent of the forest, she said.
A handful of wells are on the very edges of the 29-acre Clear Fork Gorge State Nature Preserve, a rare stand of old-growth hemlock left over from the glacial age. A large span of uninterrupted forest is an important part of wildlife habitat, Beathard said.