Photo courtesy of Naomi Van Tol
The Commercial Appeal reported last week on an unauthorized clear-cutting of trees and underbrush on the east side of the Wolf River Harbor downtown.
Apparently acting under the motto, “it’s better to say you’re sorry than to seek permission,” a company contracted by the city of Memphis denuded the entire bank from Mississippi River Park to the north edge of the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid, destroying dozens of 100-year-old cottonwoods in the process.
After complaints from several citizens and an official complaint by local environmental activist, Naomi Van Tol, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ordered the city to cease and desist. But the damage, and it is considerable, has been done.
Then the city filed an “after-the-fact” application for the work and offered to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to preserve habitat for several species which no longer have habitat in the affected area.
Stayed tuned. This is an environmental cluster-flock and will be in the news come 2016.
A view from above shows the path of destruction.
An area measuring more than 1,000 yards was affected.
