BEMIDJI — With a hurricane-strength storm knocking down an estimated 9 million trees on June 21, Beltrami County’s solid waste operators have been working 12-hour days ever since to manage the debris.
Some of those trees were processed into mulch at the temporary disposal site behind Bemidji’s Target. With the mulchers gone, the site is now for mulch pick-up only, but the clock is ticking for area residents to pick up a load for their gardens.
Jared Davidson is the operations coordinator for the county’s solid waste division, and he hopes area residents can take all the mulch they can get.
“The mountain of mulch has to go,” Davidson said. “We'll have to haul it out ourselves, and as taxpayers we don't want to do that. Hauling is expensive.”
While no hard deadline has yet been set, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency only issued a temporary permit for the debris site, meaning at some point, the solid waste operators will begin hauling the mulch to the county’s demolition landfill.
For large quantities of mulch, a permit is required from Beltrami County Environmental Services, but for a smaller amount, people can self-serve with shovels and buckets or bring a heavy-duty trailer to get loaded by the operator. Davidson said the county does not accept any liability for damage to vehicles if they request assistance loading.
After the mulching operation winds down, Davidson said cords of timber will also be gifted to area residents who can pick them up with trailers, but when that will begin has not yet been determined.
“We'll just have to see how that process is going to go,” Davidson said. “We're so busy right now that we're not able to handle that debris quite yet.”
Davidson suggests the mulch can be used beyond the garden, such as being great composting material to spread over soil, or material to cover walking paths and trails. The mulch pickup site is open from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Free mulch and timber may seem like small consolation to the millions of dollars of damage the June 21 storm caused, especially after state officials learned that Minnesota did not meet the $10.7 million threshold to pursue a federal disaster declaration.
Beltrami County Emergency Management Director Chris Muller said the news was disheartening. Beltrami County’s lost stands of timber were also not included in its $8.3 million public infrastructure damage tally from the storm.
“It's going to be a double whammy for Beltrami County because that's going to be, you know, millions of dollars in lost revenue in the future," Muller said. “For years to come.”
While meeting the state’s threshold for public infrastructure damage, the state’s account reimburses up to 75% of the damages. A FEMA declaration would have reimbursed local governments 100%.
“It’s a couple million dollars that unfortunately, the local governments are going to have to absorb,” Muller said.
