Tree Stumps

An Eldersburg builder is the first in Carroll County to be cited by the state for illegally burying tree stumps and other construction debris on a subdivision lot.Michael Reeves, builder of Homedale subdivision on Klee Mill Road, got a violation notice from the Maryland Department of the Environment Monday. He acknowledged yesterday that he had buried stumps and other debris in the subdivision but said he will not take any remedial action until he explores possible appeals."We have property rights under the Fifth Amendment to do what we want with our property," he said.

He has used a chain saw to carve intricate wooden sculptures for years, but when Mark Acton won a commission to hew two big new statues by the reservoir in Druid Hill Park, he wasn't sure he could pull it off. His material would be two tree stumps, each more than 12 feet tall and 20 feet around. Both were red oaks, which have especially tough wood. And when he first inspected them, he saw that each had lots of termite damage - the reason the city had cut them down. "'I thought, 'What in the world have I gotten myself into?

He has used a chain saw to carve intricate wooden sculptures for years, but when Mark Acton won a commission to hew two big new statues by the reservoir in Druid Hill Park, he wasn't sure he could pull it off. His material would be two tree stumps, each more than 12 feet tall and 20 feet around. Both were red oaks, which have especially tough wood. And when he first inspected them, he saw that each had lots of termite damage - the reason the city had cut them down. "'I thought, 'What in the world have I gotten myself into?

A dispute over whose property three trees were on prompted one neighbor to fatally shoot another neighbor with a rifle in Western Maryland on Wednesday, and police said this morning they have a suspect in custody. Maryland State Police said the victim, Dennis E. Liller, 43, and the suspect, Alexander E. Malaska, 69, live next door to each other on Park Horse Trail in Allegany County. The shooting occurred Wednesday about 8 p.m. Malaska was charged with manslaughter and is being held in the Allegany County Detention Center on $300,000 bail.

A Baltimore County Circuit Court judge gave the owner of the Granite stump dump permission to start accepting tree stumps and grinding them into mulch yesterday, but limited the new operations to two areas outside the dump.However, James Jett, the dump's owner, still needs state and county permits to resume operations. County officials said Mr. Jett will end up back in court if he begins operating without the necessary permits.Judge James T. Smith also told Mr. Jett any violations of his order would bring severe consequences.

Baltimore County firefighters may need two or three days to extinguish a smoldering fire in a 75-foot high "stump dump" that for years has been the object of community loathing in Granite, a wooded, western portion of the county near Patapsco State Park."

The effort to stop James Jett from placing any more tree stumps at his 126-acre Christmas tree farm in Granite was to continue today in Baltimore County Circuit Court.Yesterday, two county fire officials testified that Jett has placed two huge, new piles of tree stumps dangerously close to the old stump dump, which caught fire in February and continues to burn.Chief Elwood H. Banister Jr. and Deputy Chief John F. O'Neill both said there is a possibility that sparks or embers from the existing fire might ignite the newer piles of stumps.

Maryland's Department of the Environment has dropped its effort to make an Eldersburg builder remove tree stumps and other construction debris that he buried on a subdivision lot.The state agency rescinded its complaint after builder Michael Reeves told department officials that he had county government permission to bury leftover construction materials, tree stumps and limbs on a lot in Homedale subdivision. Mr. Reeves and developer Henry L. Blevins are completing the 40-year-old subdivision on Klee Mill Road in South Carroll County.

In an apparent case of closing the barn door after the horse escapes, Baltimore County officials and a state delegate are proposing legislation to prevent conditions that led to the continuing tree stump dump fire in Granite.Politicians are scrambling for ways to soothe public anger over the government's seeming helplessness to stop the stumps, some in piles 100 feet high, from burning at James Jett's Christmas tree farm. Fire officials believe the dump was set ablaze by arsonists Feb. 2.Neighbors have complained about Jett's operation for years but said they got little response from the government.

A new blaze at the controversial tree-stump dump that has been burning and smoldering since February was extinguished early yesterday after a six-hour battle by Baltimore County firefighters.Although there has been fire smoldering for the past six months vTC among the thousands of tree stumps dumped at James F. Jett's property in the 8700 block of Dogwood Road in western Baltimore County, officials said the latest fire erupted Saturday night in a wood chip pile."There were three fires in the mulch pile," said Baltimore County Deputy Fire Chief J. Edward Crooks.

How can we hasten the decomposition of a tree stump? Can we buy something that helps? Expose more of the stump's surface area to decomposing organisms and oxygen by sawing a cross hatch of shallow grooves into the cut top or drilling holes. This will also help the wood stay moist. Decomposing organisms also need nitrogen to decompose wood, so lightly sprinkle a high nitrogen fertilizer onto the surface. Meanwhile, you can make your stump look purposeful by using it as a pedestal for birdbath or garden ornament.

A Memorable Place Of life and tides on the Outer Banks By Jane M. Frutchey SPECIAL TO THE SUN To visit North Carolina's Carova Beach, one of the remote northernmost beaches of the Outer Banks, I knew a dependable four-wheel-drive was necessary. I never imagined that constant awareness of tides and tree stumps was also essential. On past vacations to the Outer Banks, I had witnessed countless vehicles, including SUVs, stuck in the sand off the beaches in Corolla. There are no paved roads leading to the beaches of Swan, North Swan and Carova and the secluded properties built there, so travel over dry sand demands time and patience, not to mention a rugged four-wheel-drive.

AS FAR AS some Howard countians are concerned, the Maryland General Assembly really begins in earnest after the confetti falls on the session's last night -- when the state announces awards for school construction.To accommodate one of the fastest growing enrollments in the state, Howard seeks $19 million for school projects, up from $13 million last year. A more realistic hope is about $15 million.Other than that, Howard's highlight in the legislative session was a $340,000 appropriation for an incubator facility for start-up small businesses in information-technology.

Confirming for the first time a possible source of the methane gas that has kept four families out of their homes in Elkridge, the developer said materials such as tree stumps had been buried at the site years before.John Liparini, president of the Brantley Group, said that most of the decomposing organic material was eliminated two years ago from the Calvert Ridge subdivision before houses were built. But he said that workers stopped digging at 14 feet and more might be buried.Liparini's disclosure comes five weeks after potentially explosive levels of methane in basements forced out three families in Calvert Ridge indefinitely, and briefly forced a fourth family out of its home in a neighboring subdivision, Marshalee Woods.

TIOGA, Pa. - Joel Stephens grew up on a mountain where streams run clear, clouds graze the treetops and people walk deer trails instead of vice versa.Folks shouldn't get sick here, but Stephens did. Last November, colon cancer struck the 21-year-old Orioles farmhand, who came home to this hamlet in upstate Pennsylvania to beat the disease - or die trying. The latter, he says, is not an option."People signed me off at the beginning," said Stephens, who has lost almost 40 pounds."It's a tough cancer.

Brent Crothers' sculptures, at Galerie Francoise, make their points quickly, simply and forcefully.He takes a dead tree with a lot of little branches on it, makes it the handle of a shovel, stands it up against the wall and calls it "Digging Our Own Graves." Point: By deforesting the planet we're killing it, but we're also going to kill ourselves in the process.He takes several old Reader's Digest Condensed Books, forms them into a bowl shape, burns the interior of the bowl, and calls it "Story Telling."

Just the words "fire" and "stump dump" used in the same sentence are enough to make most Baltimore County officials extremely nervous.That's why a small fire yesterday in a large pile of mulch at Patapsco Valley Farms on Dogwood Road in Granite attracted top county government officials along with two fire engines and eight tanker trucks to the site of the 1991-1992 stump dump fire.The fire, reported at 6:45 a.m. yesterday at the top of a mulch pile 18 feet high and 50 feet long, was "real minor," said Fire Specialist Ronald Schneider, a county Fire Department spokesman.

A dispute over whose property three trees were on prompted one neighbor to fatally shoot another neighbor with a rifle in Western Maryland on Wednesday, and police said this morning they have a suspect in custody. Maryland State Police said the victim, Dennis E. Liller, 43, and the suspect, Alexander E. Malaska, 69, live next door to each other on Park Horse Trail in Allegany County. The shooting occurred Wednesday about 8 p.m. Malaska was charged with manslaughter and is being held in the Allegany County Detention Center on $300,000 bail.

Maryland's Department of the Environment has dropped its effort to make an Eldersburg builder remove tree stumps and other construction debris that he buried on a subdivision lot.The state agency rescinded its complaint after builder Michael Reeves told department officials that he had county government permission to bury leftover construction materials, tree stumps and limbs on a lot in Homedale subdivision. Mr. Reeves and developer Henry L. Blevins are completing the 40-year-old subdivision on Klee Mill Road in South Carroll County.

An Eldersburg builder is the first in Carroll County to be cited by the state for illegally burying tree stumps and other construction debris on a subdivision lot.Michael Reeves, builder of Homedale subdivision on Klee Mill Road, got a violation notice from the Maryland Department of the Environment Monday. He acknowledged yesterday that he had buried stumps and other debris in the subdivision but said he will not take any remedial action until he explores possible appeals."We have property rights under the Fifth Amendment to do what we want with our property," he said.