COLUMBUS, Ohio -- For months, there have been trees toppled over because of high winds thanks to Hurricane Ike and other wind storms.
Some of those trees are still down around Central Ohio. So, who is responsible for picking them up?
The city attempts to plant 2,000 trees each year.
"We offer removal, inspection, pruning, stump grinding, planting and storm response services," said Jack Low, a forester with the department of parks and recreation.
But it's those storm services that are in question.
Some city parks have fallen trees littering the area. A huge downed tree is in the Whetstone Park of Roses, and more are down in Franklin Park. The trees have been sitting broken for months.
"We have all emergency situations cleaned up. We do, however still have some trees down in some of the parks that we have to get into when the ground firms up and some additional removals for trees that were severely damaged in the storms," Low said.
The city is aware of the downed trees, but officials said the problem is with the ground. Until now, the ground has been too soft to get to the trees, but officials said they have a plan to remove the trees.
"I would hope we could get all the storm damage picked up in April, but again, that's dependent on the rainfall and we should be able to get into the parks earlier and not have any turf damage," Low said.
Low said that when the ground is wet, the heavy equipment would likely get stuck or tear up the ground, causing more damage. For now, park goers will just have to tough it out.
"It doesn't look good. People see them and say, 'The city isn't doing anything,' but there is a reason why they're down," Low said.
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