By james art 
Last week, the city of Reno started a project to maintain and remove wood at Virginia Lake Park, and locals began to notice.
For Megan and Ian Stodard, their favorite Marathon training spot is the road around Lake Virginia.
“It’s just so accessible from so many different places,” said Ian Stodard.
“On the hot days, I like to run here because the shadow helps a lot,” said Megan Stodard.
But the couple could not help but notice that there were fewer trees than usual, provided the sought shade. This is because Reno Forensters have been busy working in the last week. Over the next few months, the crews will take out 19 Siberian elm and cut many others.
The purpose of the project? Public safety.
“(We) make sure that they are safe by removing any dead or rotten pieces of wood that could fall under the highly used pedestrian path (the trees are) any kind, reaching the end of their usable life in the landscape at that time,” says Mat Basil, urban foror.
Although the crews were out of the watch on Sunday morning, they usually work from 7:30 am to 4 pm during the week, causing traffic and closing the road. But this did not bother the local resident Leah Uzienk.
“It wasn’t too bad. I think the fact that this whole area is like a speed limit of 15 miles / h is almost expecting to go here, a kind of slow, “Wzientek said.
To revive the area after removal, Wzientek was happy to hear that Reno Forensters would plant 25 new trees to replace the old on Arbor day.
“Seeing the increase in green space is always good,” Wzientek said.
Reno crews expect the project to be completed by June, but seek to finish it earlier.