Plans for fallen trees in Charlottetown still in the works

The City of Charlottetown is still in the midst of heavy cleanup operations after post-tropical storm Fiona swept away hundreds of trees, but is already making plans to keep at least some of them out of the landfill.

"It's slow going. There's lots of debris, lots of downed trees that we've been cleaning up, there's a lot of roadside trees, residents have been cleaning up their private yards," said city public works manager Scott Adams.

"We are still trucking away every day more and more tree debris from around the city."

The brush that is being gathered is being taken to Eastlink Centre where it is being chipped. The city is looking for someone interested in taking those chips and converting them into heating fuel.

But many of the trees that fell are more than a century old, leaving behind massive trunks.

"We are picking out those large chunks, especially from all those older trees, and setting them aside so that we can reuse them," said Adams.

How they might be used is still under consideration, he said, and there will be public consultation on the matter.

Equipment availability is the biggest challenge the city is facing, said Adams.

Big trucks are needed to haul away the debris, and there is demand for them not only for cleanup but also for construction.

Clearing the brush that people are piling up by the roadside is a priority, he said, because those roadsides will need to be clear within the next six weeks or so, because plows will need a place to put the snow.

"We've got winter coming very quickly and we can't have all these large piles of trees along the side of the road when that weather hits," he said.

Work in parks is also underway. Public pathways are mostly clear and most dangerous trees have been removed, he said, but there is still weeks of work to do in other areas of the parks.