Online Petition Underway to Save Le Feil Trees in Manchester

Residents around the Countrylane Woods subdivision in Manchester have mounted an online petition to opposed a $687,932 project that would clear out trees and other vegetation in order to address flooding and dangerous erosion in the area.

 Countrylane Woods resident Nancy Walkenhorst had checked out similar projects that had been performed in the area when she first learned of this project, but her investigation raised concerns about it.

She described them as looking “awful” and “clear cut” with only a few of the original trees left standing. The area is considered part of her subdivision’s “common ground,” and she said its natural look was what attracted her and her husband to buying the property in 1981.

“We just thought nothing would destroy it,” she said. “We thought it was pretty safe. Everybody in this block likes that natural look. Now they are telling me that they are going to put a chain-link fence in the back of my whole property.”

Laura Burge, another Countrylane Woods resident, is also concerned and has been actively trying to raise awareness and halt the project. She started an online petition, which by Thursday had garnered 218 signatures, and blogged about the issue on Patch.

A self-described environmentalist, Burge said there are many trees in the area that are decades old and that the small common ground is its own “beautiful ecosystem.”

• RELATED ARTICLE: Manchester Residents to City: Don't Chop Down Our Trees

While she acknowledged that the new landscaping will be put in, she said she didn’t want to see what was currently there destroyed in the process.

"I have thousands of photos of animals, birds and the seasonal changes of our trees and plants taken over the 30 years we have lived here," she wrote on Patch.

Burge added that she and neighbors she has talked with do not believe the issues cited by the city are as critical as they have said. 

"They say we have a safety hazard? We say no one has been harmed in 40 years," she wrote. 

At this point, however, it may be too late for Burge’s activism. The city has already approved the work and Clement said they would be starting soon, depending on the weather.