The Washington County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal to clear an area of brush and timber near the Kewash Nature Trail during their meeting Tuesday.

Supervisor and Conservation Board member Stan Stoops presented a request from Jason Bell, a tenant of county-owned farm ground, to clear an area south of the trail. Conservation Executive Director Zach Rozmus explained that the area proposed is all south of the trail, including a waterway that has had a lack of maintenance, “We went out there and looked at it with them, it’s not going to impact the trail whatsoever. We had kind of approached the idea of we know that we had the second phase of the Kewash Trail coming up and we were just going to tie it in at the same time, so we were going to have some equipment involved with that too where we could potentially extend it out there. But I just wanted to let everyone know that from the conservation side of it we don’t have any objection to it at all because it’s just going to benefit the county from, as far as making the crop ground more valuable.”

Rozmus estimates about 250 feet of land would be cleared, and Stoops stated he didn’t believe this would have to affect the lease agreement with Bell in the future. He also noted that if they hired someone who is already doing dozer work near the county owned property, it would roughly cost $1,000 for eight hours of work. Stoops is also going to speak with Washington County Extension to see what funds they could cover, for which he is optimistic as it is considered a “sod bust” project.