The clear-cutting of trees without a permit on a nearly 30-acre site in Carolina Shores' extraterritorial jurisdiction was a forest management activity, a consultant for the property said this week.

Because the felling of loblolly pines on the 29.8-acre site on Calabash Road near U.S. 17 falls under forest management, it is regulated by the state and is immune to the town's new tree ordinance, says Charles L. Tate of Lake Waccamaw, a real estate broker and “consulting forester” for the site known as the Mitchell heirs tract.

Residents in the adjacent Carolina Shores North neighborhood have expressed concern about the clear-cutting in addition to other work going on in the area.

Gary DeNobrega, president of the Carolina Shores North Property Owners Association, said residents are skeptical the clear-cutting was done for “forest management” and without future development in mind.

DeNobrega complained the recent tree-felling, along with the installation of storage buildings at the adjacent Carolina Business Park has destroyed buffer zones around the neighborhood.

“We want to protect the interest of our property,” DeNobrega said. “We don't want our property to devaluate. We're trying to pursue some avenue.” 
 

DeNobrega said he wrote a letter to the town of Carolina Shores complaining “these people have cut to our borderline again. There is no buffer zone.”

Even if it is forestry management, “don't they have to abide by the same rules and regulations as everybody else would?” he asked.

Upon learning the trees had been clear-cut without a permit, Carolina Shores building inspector Jean Crowley said she issued a stop-worker order on April 19.

The town was subsequently presented with a copy of a “forest management plan of the Mitchell heirs tract,” a document also dated April 19.

Since the document was prepared by a licensed forester (Tate), Crowley said the clear-cutting falls under state forestry statutes and is not regulated by the town.

‘Timber harvest'

In a copy of his April 19 document, a letter directed to the Mitchell heirs, Tate described the tree-cutting as a “long-range forest management program...to maximize timber production on the ‘Mitchell' tract.”

He said property owner Wrathel Mitchell of Fayetteville, who owns 50 percent of the land, along with Mitchell's siblings, were justified in requesting the 45-year-old pines be taken down because the trees had reached maturity.

“When they've reached that point, that age, and you have a hurricane to come through there, you'll break the tops,” Tate said. “They'll blow over and cause more damage.”

In his letter, Tate wrote the tree stands had been sold for harvest.

“Upon completion of the timber harvest, the site should be KG-piled during the summer in order to kill any existing vegetation, and the debris should be piled into windrows,” Tate wrote.

Tate said Monday he does not know of any development planned for the site. He said the debris currently left on the property from the tree-cutting will be “cleared to a certain extent” and eventually replanted.

While the town of Carolina Shores can't regulate timber-harvesting, Crowley said it can deny a building permit for up to five years if appropriate.

“So we do have a little arm in that to regulate development,” Crowley said last week. “As far as I know they intend to [re]plant, and we have sent them a letter.”

‘War zone'

DeNobrega said five years is nothing compared to the length of time it takes for trees to grow.

The site, he said, is “prime property for development. Land is going sky-high. Our concern first of all is [that] our residents are not impeded by some kind of commercial development. Second, we're never told anything that's going on. We're taxpayers. We have a right to know what's going on within our borders.”

So far, Crowley said, the site is “a mess,” and the town has directed a letter about the matter to Mitchell.

“So far, we have not heard [back], but have given him some time to respond,” she said.

Crowley said the town also is concerned about fallen timber in the ditch, which slows the natural flow of stormwater, an ongoing issue in Carolina Shores.

“We can regulate stormwater, but we cannot regulate forest management,” Crowley said.

DeNobrega described the destruction and development going on just outside their neighborhood now as “like a war zone.”