The City of Grand Forks and Emcon Services Inc. are finding uses for the trees that were felled during the July 20 wind storm.
Hal Wright, manager of operations for the City of Grand Forks, said that crews from the city had been working since the storm hit and completed clean up last Friday (Aug. 10).
He said that the material will mostly be used for mulch and like products for city use, adding that branches would be chipped and used in products like soil and larger material would be chopped and put near the Grand Forks landfill.
“People have been able to go there and if they need some firewood, and they’re willing to do some chopping, they can go pick it up at that location,” he explained.
According to Joe Mottishaw, division manager for Emcon Services Inc., downed trees that were in the roadways and in rural Grand Forks and Christina Lake are also being used for firewood.
“Some of the neighbours take (the wood). We offer it to them first and they use it or we haul it to a dump site and let it rot,” Mottishaw explained. “Some of it is being left in the right-of-way if it’s not harming anything,” he said.
It has been nearly a month since the wind storm knocked over trees and power poles in areas of Christina Lake and rural Grand Forks. There were power outages that resulted but power to most residences was restored a few days after the storm.