GRANBY — A second phase of the Dufresne Park forest management plan will remove more trees than the first — 2,300 dead, fallen or infested trees — after the Select Board previously said the additional round of management would remove fewer trees compared to two years ago.

Forester John Edwards, who wrote the first cutting plan for the park, suggested at Granby’s June 2 Select Board meeting that the town intervene soon to recover roughly 560,000 feet of timber along the Kendall Street side of the park.

While some trees marked for removal will simply open up small pockets of sunlight to help young saplings grow, many marked trees are hemlock trees infested or killed by the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid.

“All the way up and down the eastern seaboard, where hemlock is considered a keystone species, [hemlock trees] are dying. You’re suffering the same indignity here in the Pioneer Valley,” Edwards said.

This invasive aphid sucks on the needles of the hemlock trees, slowly killing them. While there are some ways to treat individual trees in a person’s yard, harvesting the trees are the industry-standard solution for a forest full of 120-foot hemlock trees, Edwards said.

The first phase of Dufresne forest management plan cut 1,674 trees, mostly dead oaks, across 30 acres of the park. These hardwoods, Edwards told the Gazette two years ago, were standing deadwood left over from a large spongy moth infestation that racked the Pioneer Valley.

However, the forest management procedure received backlash from conservation-minded residents who raised concerns about clear-cutting areas of the park. The Select Board and Edwards asserted in previous meetings that the cut trees were dead and waiting for them to fall along walking paths is a liability.

The second phase will also selectively cut trees, a technique called shelterwood cutting, rather than clear cut an entire area. Most of the pines scheduled to be cut will create openings of sunlight in the forest canopy, allowing light to reach the seed bank and support new trees, Edwards said. He added that he left some “wildlife trees” specifically to help birds of prey nest and hunt.

“Dufresne Park should really be a more softwood than hardwood landscape,” Edwards said.

Before she left the Select Board, Crystal Dufrense planted 20 saplings in the park through Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Woodland and Watershed Pilot Program. She received help from Select Board member David Labonte, Select Board Chair Mark Bail, Wendy Watson, Mary and Mike Karukin and Craig Judicki. The money for the trees came from the saplings are doing well, Edwards said.

“I was stunned to walk out there, to look at where the trees had been planted. There’s a little carpet of white pine that’s already started growing,” he continued.

Now that Edwards has chosen which trees to harvest, he will submit a report for the Department of Conservation and Recreation to review and approve. The project will then go out to bid. During the previous phase, the lumber was sold for $71,000 and will go toward improvements to Dufresne Park once the second phase of cutting is completed.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com