Corps Policy to Strip Indiana Levee of 135 Trees

A Muncie, Ind., greenway will lose more than 100 trees under a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers policy designed to ensure levees are sound.

Rick Conrad of the Muncie Sanitary District tells The Star Press the city has to remove about 135 trees from the levee built in the 1940s in order for the corps to certify the structure. He says the floodplain would expand and residents protected by the levee would have to buy flood insurance if the trees remain.

Residents are unhappy about the plan and say removing the trees will ruin the White River Greenway.

The state will require the district to replace the trees it removes, but the replacement trees will be planted in the floodplain upstream or downstream from Muncie, not on the levee.