White Lake Twp. Resident Kristen Blaszkiewicz annually photographed her favorite tree at the Lake Pontiac Recreation Area. Here’s to 2021. Courtesy Kristen Blaszkiewicz
Kristen Blaszkiewicz was looking forward to photographing her favorite tree this fall. I knew its leaves would be ablaze with color at the edge of Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, in the middle of a dirt lot off Teggerdine Road.
This year, he found a bright yellow backhoe and dirt where the tree had been for decades.
“I was alone in my car and I was speechless. I just started crying. I was heartbroken,” she said. She called her husband, Mark. “I said, ‘They took down this tree and a bunch of trees behind it.'”
Since the fall of 1992, when her husband and father began building the family home in White Lake Township, Blaszkiewicz has visited the tree at the state-owned 3,745-acre Pontiac Lake Recreation Area, 3480 Teggerdine Road in White Lake. At first, she was preparing a picnic lunch for herself and her 5-year-old daughter.
Those picnics became a tradition, as do Blaszkiewicz’s annual fall photos. Every day he sends pictures by text message to his family members. He’s even put a photo of his favorite tree on a canvas, along with a tree closer to Lake Pontiac that he also photographs regularly.
She was still upset a few days later and remembers Mark saying, “Honey, they’re just doing their job.”
“Unfortunately, sometimes in order to move forward, some things have to be done,” said Scott Pratt, chief of southern field operations for the Michigan DNR’s Parks and Recreation Division, explaining that parking at length of Teggerdine is used by hikers, hunters and equestrians who need space for their horse trailers.
The trees were removed as part of a $26,000 renovation of the Teggerdine Road parking lot to create more space and reduce traffic congestion, based on concerns raised by people who use the lot, he said. Contrary to the rumor that the maple tree was sick, Pratt said, it was healthy, just in the way.
Blaszkiewicz shared her before and after photos on social media. Some responded with outrage, others with sympathy, and still others told him to get over it.
“It’s ‘just a tree’ and I get that,” he said. “But isn’t that the point of being in the countryside, having lots of trees?”
Pratt said the tree appeared to be a maple and not native to the Pontiac Lake Recreation Area.
“Typically, there’s a relationship between the trees,” Pratt said. “This was out of the ordinary.”
Blaszkiewicz said a neighbor told him the parking lot used to have a house nearby and it’s believed residents at the time planted the tree.
The DNR will replace trees in state parks and recreation areas, Pratt said, but plant them in places where they can grow and stay.
State officials began looking at the Teggerdine side of the park for a few reasons, he said, starting with traffic safety.
One was to renovate the underground car park and reduce dust problems. During events that drew a lot of traffic, he said, traffic jams were occurring and dust from the dirt terrain created other problems.
“We wanted to realign sight lines along Teggerdine,” he said.
Removing the maple and some trees on the periphery of the lot opened up the circular lot and improved drainage.
“We’ve had to crown the lot to accommodate more vehicles,” he said. If they had left the maple, “it would have faded and died. It would have been very difficult for us to create any canopy without removing even more trees around the periphery.”
Blaszkiewicz said he understands the reasons for the changes, but wishes the state had waited until the leaves fell before cutting down the tree. She hopes to plant a maple tree in her own yard next year.
Pontiac Lake Recreation Area will also receive $2.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to replace water distribution and sewer systems and renovate or replace concession buildings and restrooms in the day use area.
