Trail Regional Airport staff will seek a permit to cut down a line of dead Dutch elm trees along Highway 22.
City council heard this week that the big storm on July 31 knocked down four of the trees and damaged sections of the fencing that prevents wildlife from getting onto the runway.
Airport manager Enrico Moehrle raised the issue of the trees a few months ago, noting the hazard that broken limbs posed to the fence.
He said an airport crew quickly removed the downed trees and put in temporary fencing. They have since done a “proper patch and repair” of the fence line, using materials left over from when the fence was originally built.
Moehrle said many similar trees are still standing, but he fears it’s just a matter of time before they suffer the same fate.
He brought the matter up with the province, but was told it isn’t their responsibility, even though the trees are on the government right-of-way, because they didn’t plant them — but no one is sure who did.
The province suspects the trees may have been planted by Cominco, the City of Trail, or the District of Tadanac, which was once involved in the airport’s operation. However, so long as the trees pose no hazard to the highway, the province won’t do anything about them, Moehrle said.
He’s now looking into getting a permit to have them removed, and paying for it out of the airport budget. “It’s our only potential move going forward to prevent further damage,” he said.
While they could move the fence, Moehrle said that would be even more costly. He believes it’s more practical to remove the trees. He received a preliminary estimate of $25,000 to $28,000 to get rid all 20 trees, but now that four are gone, he expects the price might come down a bit.
Passenger numbers up
The number of people flying in and out of the Trail airport was up this summer over last.
Moehrle reported that July saw 2,035 passengers, an increase of 332 over the same month in 2024. There were five flight cancellations, of which three were due to planned maintenance by Pacific Coastal airlines, and two were weather-related.
In August, there were 1,928 passengers, up 268 from a year earlier. There were also five cancellations, of which two were planned, one was weather-related, and two were caused by delays attributed to air traffic control in Vancouver, which had a “massive shortage of personnel” that day.
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