Who Took Down All Those Trees at Cascade Lake in Rochester?

I love to get out and use the Cascade Lake Trail in northwest Rochester. It's scenic, it's near our house, and it's great place to go for a run or bike ride. But I was wondering why someone had cleared out all the trees around part of the lake recently.

Now I know why. Thanks to this KTTC-TV story, all those trees were removed, on purpose, by the Rochester Parks and Rec department, as they go about getting the park ready for more citizen use.

The story said it's all part of a long-range plan for the park, which is located between 2nd Street southwest and Highway-14, just west of Highway-52. It was once an old sand mine, and is now being developed into to quite the park. (You can check out the long-range plan for the park HERE.)

As it turns out, I wasn't the only one wondering why all the trees along the north and western shore of the lake were removed. Turns out, they weren't really supposed to be there in the first place.

According to Mike Nigbur, Park & Forestry Division Head, "A lot of them were volunteer trees-- meaning they grew up by themselves, we didn't plant them," Nigbur said in the story. "They were trees that were not necessarily desirable, so Box Elders, Chinese Elm, things that are invasive in some cases."

Ahh, so that makes sense. Because I did get a little upset when I saw what had happened to the shoreline (ask my wife!). It looked very serene and peaceful before, and now it looks kind of ugly. But it won't be that way for long, though.

The story said improvements will continue to be made to the park, with work wrapping up this November, the story said. However, things at the park won't really look like they're supposed to until next spring.