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WARREN -- Timber on a large wooded area adjacent to St. Joseph Warren Hospital is being harvested, but the property owner doesn't have immediate plans to develop the land.
Mark Smith, who purchased the land toward the end of last year, said he has "kicked around some ideas" on what to do next, but "at this time, I was going to wait until the timbering, the (forestry) management part was done, which we are expecting toward the end of March and take a look at it then."
But before any development happens, permission would be needed from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because of wetlands on the approximately 54-acre site.
"While no permits are needed for the logging activity, the property owner would need wetlands permits to develop the site, including removing tree stumps, moving soil around or filling wetlands," stated Dina Pierce, media coordinator for Ohio EPA's Northwest and Southwest districts, in an email. "These permits would require mitigation to offset impacts to wetlands at the site."
A letter from the corps of engineers in June states the site -- between Eastland Avenue SE to the west, Patchen Avenue SE to the south, and north near Southwood Drive SE and Devon Street SE -- contains 18.94 acres of what is called "jurisdictional wetland."
Another 12 wetlands totaling 5.62 acres were determined to be isolated.
According to the Ohio EPA, a jurisdictional wetland is connected to a stream or other body of water, making it fall under the U.S. Clean Water Act and under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. An isolated wetland is surrounded by dry land and falls under the authority of the Ohio EPA.
Pierce said the wetlands under the army corps are contained in the northern part of the property. They are "hydrologically connected" to an unnamed tributary to Mosquito Creek, which flows into Mosquito Creek and eventually the Mahoning River, according to the army corps' letter.
In this area, "trees can be logged without a permit as long as the stumps are not removed or soil / fill added," Pierce wrote in an email.
The southern part contains the isolated wetlands.
"Logging can be done on the land outside the isolated wetlands. Also, a limited number of trees can be cut in the isolated wetlands as long as the forested canopy of the wetlands are maintained and the trees are cut manually (no heavy equipment)," Pierce wrote.
Smith, of North Bloomfield, said the land contains various species of trees. Many had been blown over and uprooted, but they still had value. "They were going to lay there and rot, so we cleaned those up," Smith said. Some, he said, were diseased.
An official with the Ohio EPA visited the site Nov. 15 and again Nov. 19, when, according to Pierce, there was also a representative from the army corps.
rselak@tribtoday.com