By Ed Jones
Linnton’s medians have trees. There were thirty-three trees to start with, but bad driving led to lost trees. Ordinarily the Linnton Neighborhood Association replaced missing trees, but that effort didn’t sustain itself during Covid and by 2024 there were eight missing trees.
Replacing the trees requires closing lanes on St. Helens Road and that requires ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) approval. Efforts by the LNA to get that approval failed. ODOT told us trees were no longer favored and that ODOT would take
over responsibility for the medians.
Now another tree has disappeared. It is hard to notice as you drive by, but in the third median (from the south) the second cutout used to have a tree but now only has a stump. By rumor it was hit by a car and then cut down by ODOT. Apparently, the new ODOT policy is to do no maintenance and just cut down without replacing any tree that is damaged.