JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Metro residents are speaking out about trees left near their properties after the National Park Service began working to clear trees affected by drought and an ongoing pine beetle infestation last year.

“I and the other neighbors here are very concerned about what this is going to do to our property values, to the wildlife that was previously so prevalent in the wooded areas behind the house, and it’s just a terrible situation that we have to deal with,” said Madison resident Kelly Kyle.

Kyle is just one of the Madison residents speaking out, and he says it affects nearly his entire subdivision and many more.

Work to remove hazardous trees along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Clinton, Ridgeland and Madison began Aug. 26, and 821 trees have been removed so far, according to the National Park Service.

Still, some residents are having to dip out their own wallets to remove some of the trees. For Kelly, he had to pay $750 per tree to cut down 20 trees, costing his family around $15,000.

Moreover, the trees cut by the NPS were often left in inappropriate places, becoming an eyesore.

“We used to have a beautiful backyard. The house was featured in a Jackson-area publication last summer, and its backyard was indeed a showplace. But if you look back through our fences, all you can see now are pine logs two or three deep in some cases,” Kyle said.

Residents are also frustrated with the lack of communication from the NPS regarding plans to remove the trees and hope they can get an answer sooner rather than later.

“We want to know if there are any fixes being made, but we can’t even determine that because the Park Service isn’t communicating with us… Ideally, we’d like to see some intervention, but it’s not something we think we could live with,” Kyle said.

According to the NPS, efforts to cut down more trees will resume in the first week of December, and although many people are still dealing with the problem, trees are being cut down to protect life and property.

WLBT attempted multiple times to interview the National Parks Service about their plans for future tree removal, but they were not available for interviews at this time.

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