GEORGETOWN

A plan for managing two town-owned forest preserves met with loud opposition Thursday on the question of whether to remove most or all of the mature spruce at Ipcar Preserve.

Forester Barrie Brusilla of Warren said that while the Round the Cove parcel, on the west side of Robinhood Cove, mostly requires removal of some invasive species and repair of a road that is being washed away, the Ipcar Preserve, near the tip of Five Islands, is in danger of “blow downs” with spruce trees that cannot withstand ocean winds.

The reason, Brusilla said, is that the soil is very shallow that close to the coast. Many trees at Ipcar are lying on the ground now, and when a tree is blown down, it opens up an edge to the wind that leads to cascading blow downs.

Most of the 40 or so attendees at Thursday’s meeting were unconvinced.

“I’m opposed to clear cutting,” said resident Sara Miller, who owns a home that abuts Ipcar Preserve. “I think we should take some of the trees, and leave the other ones there. And get the fallen trees out.”

Brusilla said that selective harvesting isn’t a good option at Ipcar because when some trees are removed, the wind will have a way to get in and cause others to blow down. She recommends cutting all the mature spruce but leaving younger spruce trees, pine trees and the hardwood trees on the parcels alone.

About two-thirds of the trees at Ipcar Preserve are mature spruce.

“So you are suggesting that we log two-thirds of the trees at Ipcar?” a resident asked incredulously. Brusilla said that was indeed the proposal.

Residents were wary, because they saw the harvest on Indian Point several years ago, and considered it a terrible job.

“The machinery broke up ledge and made it impossible to walk there,” one resident said. “There are still scars on the land, a lot of downed trees. It’s horrible.”

John Hagan, of the Georgetown Conservation Commission, said that the logging at Indian Point was made necessisary by numerous blow downs.

Residents remember it differently.

“No, the owner cut down some of the trees on the lot, then the trees blew down,” one countered.

Residents seemed to agree that invasive species at Round the Cove Preserve had to be removed, and that the trails and road should be repaired. Bittersweet is taking hold, along with other species of shrub and trees that may choke out native plants.

They also agreed that downed trees should be removed from Ipcar and the trails kept in better condition. But there was no strong support for logging at either preserve.

Some 50 to 70 trees have blown down at Ipcar in the last year, the Conservation Commission has said, appealing for the public’s help to cut up and remove the debris. But so far, few have volunteered.

Downed trees would have been removed by loggers, Brusilla said, as part of the cleanup process. However, few logging companies are willing to go into forests just to clean up blown down trees, because the value of the timber is lower.

A logging company might be found that would be willing to do the work for an hourly fee, she said. But logging on a wider scale would pay for maintenance, trails and boundary markers, according to the Conservation Committee.

Residents counter that no one would be interested in hiking the trails at Ipcar if the large spruce trees are removed en masse.

Charlie Ipcar, a descendant of the commissioner for whom the preserve is named, said he would have to do some research to determine whether there were any limitations to how the preserve could be used. Commission Chairwoman Kate Mackay said that the only limitation she was aware of is that the preserve be open to the public.

There is also an issue of fire hazard in the thickly settled Five Islands area.

Brusilla said that fire is a natural part of a forest’s life, but it is of greater concern when the forest in question is surrounded by large numbers of homes and businesses.

Some of the trees in part of the Ipcar Preserve probably got their start in the forest fire of 1934.

Although no thinning is necessary currently at the Round the Cove preserve, removing underbrush will be necessary, especially since the preserve surrounds Georgetown Central School on three sides.

The committee said it would take residents’ comments and consider them, and promised to keep in touch as the decision making process moves forward.