A Hilton Head resident did this to stop more trees from being cut down

Deborah Urato said she woke up Tuesday morning to the sound of chainsaws — then did something unexpected.

On Monday, CrowderGulf crews were at the other end of Park Road clearing trees in Urato’s North Forest Beach neighborhood — which infuriated her — in order to get equipment into a town-protected wooded area to pull out remaining Hurricane Matthew debris from a stormwater drainage ditch.

At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the crews were back out in the area near the corner of Park Road and Heron Street. That’s when Urato decided to take action.

She said she stopped more work from being done by placing herself in front of the debris-clearing equipment.

By about 9:30 a.m., Urato was still in the clearing, though no longer blocking equipment. Armed only with a bottle of bug spray, she stood among piles of shrubs and branches, which she said the crews had cut down earlier in the morning, in front of the last section of uncleared woods.

“It’s too late for this side,” Urato said. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Town staff attorney Brian Hulbert, who was at the scene Tuesday, told Urato she could not interfere with the work going forward but was welcome to express her opinions.

About 15 feet wide and 1,200 feet long, the cleared pathway now trails through more than half of the length of the drainage ditch that the crew is working on, said Jeff Buckalew, town engineer, while at the scene.

Urato said she was told Monday that no more trees would be cut down in the remaining wooded section. But she said Town Council member David Ames informed her Tuesday that Steve Riley, town manager, reversed that decision.

“Hurricane Matthew did nothing to that forest,” Urato said. “Hurricane Riley came in and decimated the whole thing.”

Riley said Tuesday he asked town staff on Monday about why they did not plan to move forward with cleaning up debris in the rest of the North Forest Beach drainage area.

“They said it was necessary work, and I said, ‘Why is it stopping?’ ” Riley said. “Running away won’t help.”

Riley said he instructed CrowderGulf to move its crews to other locations on the island but added he is unsure whether they would be gone for the entire day Tuesday or just part of the day before resuming work in the North Forest Beach area.

“I’ve got to take a bigger picture look at this,” Riley said, noting if work is not done in the remaining section of North Forest Beach, residents upstream will have drainage issues. “We weren’t as sensitive to the needs of all these ditches over the years. The storm has taught us we need to look at the ditches.”

Buckalew said there’s about 100 feet of woods left to clear in the North Forest Beach area to finish cleanup work there.

“We shouldn’t have to clear any more large, mature trees,” he said.

Jeff Netzinger, assistant town engineer and stormwater manager, said Tuesday that town staff will mark trees that should remain untouched. Urato asked to be a part of that process but hadn’t been given details as of late Tuesday morning.

Riley said Monday he didn’t think anyone is keeping track of the number of trees cut down as part of the hurricane debris cleanup. Instead, he said, town staff are tracking the volume of debris removed. Netzinger said Monday about 58,000 cubic yards of debris is expected to be removed from drainage ditches across the island.

Removing debris from drainage ditches on the island is the last major phase of Hurricane Matthew recovery, according to town officials. In total, the recovery is expected to cost the town an estimated $65.9 million.

This story was originally published August 8, 2017 at 2:12 PM with the headline "A Hilton Head resident did this to stop more trees from being cut down."