Some On City Council Say Land-Based Runway Should Be
Closed
The city of Duluth, MN has for two years been looking for a way
to reconcile safety at Duluth Sky Harbor Airport (KDYT) with the
encroachment of hundreds of trees in a nearby old-growth pine
forest into the airport's flight path.
Duluth Sky Harbor Sectional
The city has spent nearly $900,000 to study the issue, and has
determined that the two best options for reconciling the problem
would involve cutting or trimming hundreds of trees in the forest.
But two members of the city council say a third solution ...
closing the land runway at Sky Harbor and keeping it open only as a
seaplane base ... should also be kept on the table.
The Duluth News-Tribune reports that councilors Sharla
Gardner and Kerry Gauthier have asked the city to determine what it
would cost to close the airport. "If the plan is to keep Sky Harbor
open at the expense of the pine forest, this community will not
respond favorably, because that pine forest is a gem," Gardner
said.
"If too many trees are cut, it could have an impact on the whole
forest," Gauthier added. He said he is looking at any way to save
as many trees as possible.
Both options deemed best by the city council would mean that the
runway would be shortened by 400 feet, and extended into the bay to
move it back from the forest. One would require construction of an
entirely new runway. But if the FAA strictly enforces height
requirements in the transition zone, over 800 trees would have to
be removed or shortened in the least expensive option open to the
council. Some experts say topping the trees leaves them open to
damage from insects and disease, which could eventually affect the
entire forest.
Of course, the FAA rarely sees closing an airport as being an
attractive option.
In letters to the city council provided to ANN by a Duluth
resident, Duluth Airport Authority Executive Director Bryan Ryks
tells the body that among the open questions associated with the
issue are whether the FAA will allow some of the trees to remain
due to the investment the city has made in erecting obstruction
lights to protect the trees in the transition zone. He says the
study has not yet determined how many trees would be cut or topped,
and that the concerns raised by the Duluth Tree Commission about
the adverse effects of topping the trees "appears to be made on
misconceptions and generalizations." "When the tree study is
complete, the DAA will continue to work with the technical team of
forestry and ecology specialists to determine where and if tree
impacts will occur and what the overall forest effect would be," he
writes.
Ryks goes on to say that the $2.7 million it is estimated to
cost to close the land runway does not take into account "lease
buyouts, repayment of state grants, repayment of federal grants,
and restoration of the site." He says if the airport is to be
closed, the city will bear the entire cost of the closure, but if
the runway is moved, the FAA will fund 95% of the improvement
costs.
In a separate letter to the council, the Duluth Tree Commission
talks about the removal of windbreak trees that protect the older
trees ... some over 200 years old ... in the forest. They also say
that cutting the trees is only a temporary solution, as "trees will
continue to grow in the airspace." But a main thrust of their
argument seems to be the number of people they perceive as using
the airport compared to the number of people who use the forest for
recreation. "The feature that makes this airport unique is the
ability to change from floats to wheels," writes Tree Commission
Chair Christine Penny. "All other aircraft can utilize the Duluth
International Airport. We have been told that 50 planes a year
utilize the switch-over feature. We would venture to say that
probably 50 people A DAY (emphasis hers) utilize the pine
forest."
Ryks counters that argument saying there are about 13,000
operations per year at the airport, according to FAA records, which
works out to about 36 operations per day. "As a result, the airport
usage is significantly more than 50 individual per year as she
makes reference to in her correspondence."
Ryks also points out that the airport is a U.S. Customs Point of
Entry, is convenient to a nearby business park, and has an economic
impact of $1.4 million per year.
That argument seemed to have traction with councilor Todd
Fedora, who is a former airport authority commissioner. He said
that closing the airport is "an absolute non-starter." He said
closing the airport would mean less cash coming in, as well as more
expense to the city.