It was the talk of the town a couple of weeks ago. Almost overnight, a seven-acre site of stunning Norway pines along Highway 33 south was clear cut and excavated - and the move left many stunned and surprised.
It's not as though none of us knew something new might be coming down the pike. A sizable "For Sale" sign had hung in the midst of those trees for a long time. And to be sure, the purchaser of the property went through all the proper permitting with the city before taking any action.
But what undoubtedly drew the outcry of many was the fact that no real, consolidated plan is in place to maintain the integrity of the tree-lined avenue that has for so long been one of Cloquet's most stunning assets. Hundreds of thousands of motorists have exited the freeway at Cloquet on their way north. With the exception of the lineup of billboards that intrude on the natural beauty along the southern end of Highway 33, the trees of Pine Valley and northward say a lot about the natural assets of the Cloquet area. Trees the age and size of the red pines along that corridor cannot soon be replaced with anything comparable.
Without a conscious plan in mind to protect that asset, the city stands to lose out bigtime when private property changes hands to make way for new development.
Granted, there are design standards in place requiring that a new business have in place a screening of "natural materials" to preserve and enhance the look of the area. But it seems superfluous to go to that effort when maintaining a row or two of the mature trees that were there to begin with would have not only filled the bill - but maintained the overall impact of that corridor as well.
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The time is here for the city to go back to the drawing board, not only continuing to enforce its current design standards but also looking at a plan to maintain the valuable commodity we already have in place.
The Cloquet Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee has embraced as its tagline, "Water, woods and wonder." One of these days, we might be wondering just where all the woods have gone.
Wendy Johnson
