Condo board members discussing cutting down trees

With traffic, stop lights and daytime crowds residents say trees add a peaceful touch to downtown life, but trees draw birds.

"About 15,000 of them show up every night," said Kent Morlan, the president of board for the Central Park Condominiums downtown.

He's talking about starlings. It's a type of bird that migrates here from the south in the spring and infiltrate downtown starting in mid-July.

They usually arrive to roost around dusk, but it's what they leave behind that's creating a stink, literally.

"It stinks like the high heavens. It smells like my granddad's chicken house," said Morlan.

So condo board members decided on a solution to force the starlings to fly the coop.

"There seems to be no solution other than simply depriving them of a place to stay at night," said Morlan.

He said that means cutting the trees in the front of the condos down, but many residents are fighting it.

"The benefits of the trees far outweigh the bird issue," said Melissa Schupp, a condo resident.

Ned Bruha, the Skunk Whisperer, says there are other options.

"If you were to want to keep the trees you'd have to put deterrents on the trees, such as audio deterrents," said Bruha.

But Bruha admits those deterrents are not guarantee to keep the birds away for good.

Schupp just wants everyone to work together to find a solution to keep the trees and deter the birds from roosting in downtown.

"We should address it as a city to try to eliminate the birds downtown," said Schupp.

The board is set to meet September 7th to talk about the cost to get rid of the trees.