Logging in the Lake Maumelle watershed

Rhonda Patton, the tree lover who blew the whistle on Dennis Rainey’s tree cutting on Central Arkansas Water property near Lake Maumelle to improve the view from his hilltop home, sent me another picture from just below the Ouachita Trail of downed pine trees in the area where Rainey hired a tree service that felled or topped some 70 trees.

Neighbors, Ouachita Trail advocates and believers in protecting the water supply continue to protest to spur meaningful accountability by the water utility.

Rainey contends he got permission 25 years ago to cut pines and top hardwoods. Others associated with CAW dispute this. A criminal investigation by the sheriff’s office is in progress and civil action is also a possibility.