Bemidji Parks and Rec Planning Downtown Tree Removal Project This Spring

With the warmer weather starting to arrive in northern Minnesota, pedestrians and residents will soon fill up the streets and sidewalks of Bemidji. But the last thing they may want while walking on those sidewalks is a trip hazard. That’s why Bemidji Parks and Recreation is planning on starting a downtown tree removal project.

“The point of the downtown tree removal project is solely based on the safety of the sidewalks,” said Scott Schroeder, Bemidji Parks Superintendent. “Over the years, you can see that the tree roots have blown out the concrete and blown out the pavers. It’s cause for there to be trip hazards down there, which is obviously unsafe. They have overgrown their space that was available for them.

The project should be relatively simple, but it could still cause some disturbances for businesses in the area, as well as residents traveling on the sidewalks.

“It’s definitely going to cause some disturbances down in the business area,” adds Schroeder. “There’ll be some sidewalks closed, there’ll be some streets closed when we start doing the tree removals. The anticipated date for all this is weather pending, but we’re hoping [for] late April, early May.”

To keep things as smooth as possible for the downtown area, this project will be done in phases.

“We do know that we’re going to remove the trees probably two to three weeks before the stump removals start to happen, just to kind of get that all done with, and then we’ll just leave three, four-foot stumps out there and we just come through and be done with it,” Schroeder said.

After removing all 14 trees, the next phase will be getting the stumps out of the ground, which could be challenging due to the sidewalks.

“It wouldn’t be such a big project if there wasn’t so much concrete around the tree itself,” explained Schroeder. “It has become a big task in order to get that stump out, to replace the tree and plant a new tree in there. We have to get rid of the stump. Well, in order to do that, we have to get rid of a lot of concrete and asphalt around it so we can get the roots out of there.”

The Streets Department will be partnering on the project to help with the process.

“They’re doing all of the concrete removal and the paver removals,” said Schroeder. “The Parks Department’s doing all of the tree removals and the tree grate removals. Outside of that, there’s just a variety of contractors that we’re working on the project with.”

Half of the trees that will be removed will be on Beltrami Avenue. Trees on 2nd Street, 3rd Street, and Minnesota Avenue will also be taken down as part of the project.