"To exist as a
nation, to prosper as a state, and to live as a people, we must have
trees."
-Theodore Roosevelt
This site is
updated in spurts and starts as time allows.
Late Breaking News:
On March 16, the International Society of Arboriculture
hosted a Tree Climbing Contest at Lake Shore Park. Click here
to see some astonishing pictures of the tree-climbers.
KUB announces new pruning standards for
"special status trees"
In an effort to address some of the outcry over
aggressive trimming of mature street trees around powerlines, the Knoxville
Utilities Board (KUB) has introduced new standards for trees that qualify for
special treatment. Read more
here.
UT reneges on its pledge to "try" to save the ancient Ginkgos on The Hill More green space lost to the quickly growing impermeable footprint of
buildings and hardscape
Site work for the
Min Kao
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building has begun on "The
Hill," located on the eastern most part of campus near 11th Street. Originally
the rumor was that
attempts were
being made to save some of the enormous, beautiful Ginkgo trees that lined the
pedestrian walkway, with the caveat that they "may not be able to survive the stress" of the extreme excavation that will be taking place
for the building's foundation. Well, they weren't able to survive the
stress of large chain saws, as it turns out. As of the last week of February 2008, they are now
gone.
The Knoxville Utilities
Board's (KUB) tree-trimming practices are still causing
heartache among residents of Sequoyah Hills, as
reported by Hayes Hickman. To address some of these
concerns, there will be a Community Tree Forum Monday, March 17, from 6 to 7:30
p.m. in the Lecture Hall at the Knoxville Convention Center. Panelists will
address "Landscaping, Species Selection and Planting," "Hazard Tree
Identification and Management," "Knoxville City Tree Board Activities" and
"KUB Tree Pruning Program." This is billed as "an open discussion with a panel of experts on essential
topics affecting local businesses and homeowners." The primary sponsor is KUB,
along with UT, City of Knoxville, and Ijams. For more information call
594-7531.
UT Beautification Plan
Includes Planting of 90 Oak Trees
The UT Student Government
Association has spearheaded an effort to plant new Oak trees along
Volunteer Avenue. Student organizations donated $13,000 toward this
effort. Read more here.
We are a Tree City
Ever wondered about
Knoxville's "Tree City" designation, which is advertised on a
sign at the intersection of Henley Street and Summit Hill Drive?
This is a program sponsored by The
Arbor Day Foundation to encourage US cities to protect and nurture
their urban tree canopies. Knoxville has been a Tree City for 16
years, since the
Knoxville Tree Board was first formed in 1992. There are
other requirements to be a Tree City, including having guidelines for tree
management through a tree ordinance, a $2 per capita tree management
budget, and observance of Arbor Day. There are 36 cities in
Tennessee that are Tree Cities. Some cities' tree management
activities are formalized under an official Urban Forestry department (Chattanooga,
Clarksville,
Cleveland,
Germantown,
and Johnson City). You can read about
the activities of Tennessee Tree Boards here.
UT busily converting last
remaining greenspace areas for new construction
In
addition to the ancient
Gingkos that the University of Tennessee destroyed in February 2008,
UT is moving forward to convert 21 acres of
forested green space at the corner of Neyland Drive and Cumberland Avenue
to a building site for 13 sorority houses, by 2009.
On August 19, 2007, the News-Sentinel ran a story to sell the public on the necessity of creating
this "Sorority Village" (click here). This student
residential area is located outside of walking distance from
campus, thus
creating the need for ample parking space for the women to drive to class
- however, it was noted that the "T" bus would be making stops
there on its circuit.
The sororities
are funding the construction; these new buildings will replace the Panhellenic Building
that the sororities currently use at the corner of Cumberland Avenue and
16th Street (constructed in 1965 and allegedly in violation of ADA and
asbestos standards). Originally, ten historic houses were
demolished along Terrace Avenue (off of the "strip") in 2005 to
serve as the new building site. However, after the site was cleared,
it was decided that it was too small. Click here to read the
Knoxville News-Sentinel's account and here to see more pictures of the
urban forest that the buildings will displace.
The Home Builders Association successfully pressures MPC for
a new draft of the
Knoxville-Knox County Tree Conservation and Planting Plan, with all
references to enforced tree canopy protection removed from the original
March 2005 version. The proposed ordinances drafted in 2005 would have regulated
preservation/replacement of existing trees and required a publicly-funded
arborist to be a developer "watchdog." However, these 23 pages of
ordinances addressing canopy protection, parking lots, and subdivisions were
boiled down in 2006 to a six-page ordinance that only provides for the creation
of a city/county tree board that can "make recommendations" and
explore the possibility of using voluntary programs. One bright spot: the new version
makes suggestions for
"utility operations" (e.g., trimming of trees around power lines),
which were not mentioned in the 2005 version. The November 2006 report is available here.
Similar to the old version, a framework of
recommendations is still presented in the text for:
Protecting key resources, including ridges and riparian areas,
Planting programs for specific types of development, including
parking lots and buffers between residential and other land uses,
Planting programs on public grounds, particularly schools and park
and library sites,
Tree conservation and landscape improvements along rural roads,
local streets, cross-county arterials, and interstates, and
Standards and practices for planting trees.
Added to this framework in the 2006 version:
Programs that can be used to implement the
plan.
The The National Arbor Day Foundation updates
planting zones, placing most of Tennessee in a warmer category because of recent
climate patterns. The National Arbor Day Foundation's new map places
nearly all of Tennessee in Zone 7, where plants such as camellias and cypress
trees are acceptable to plant. Story here.
The University of Tennessee's Energy, Environment
and Resources Center has just completed a survey of homeowners in Knox County.
The purpose of the study was to
determine public awareness of tree-related issues facing Knox County and the level of public support/opposition for existing and
proposed tree policies. Click here
to see a pdf of the final report and here to see a Knoxville News-Sentinel
story about
the study.
Many of Knoxville's near-downtown neighborhoods
contain the city's largest and most beautiful trees. A summary of the
health of the tree canopy in one of these neighborhoods, Historic Old North
Knoxville, may be found here.
Oh, those much-maligned pear trees! Most of
us associate pear trees with the suburban Bradford Pear variety - the sterile (not
fruit-bearing), short-lived version that used to make up a large
portion of the old Krutch
Park. In this poem,
Knoxvillian Judy Loest celebrates the existence of a particular orchard pear tree
that lives downtown, with genuine hard, grainy pears. This tree is
continually fighting for its right to exist at Kendrick Place, over the
objections of neighbors to its "messy," fruit-bearing
nature.
The University of Tennessee
renovation of the Glocker Building has involved the unfortunate elimination of many trees. Drawings on the business school's website
show replacement of the former lawn and trees along Andy Holt with the "hardscape"
that UT favors (to minimize grounds maintenance). The
artists' renditions show new tiny monoculture trees emanating from holes in the
concrete to replace the giant oaks, maples and magnolias that used to grace the lawn
surrounding the former Glocker building. Work began in early 2005.
Click on the images above
for a larger view. Both images are from the same vantage point. For
more closeups of the gorgeous trees that were destroyed, click HERE.
Sudden Oak Death (SOD) reaches East Tennessee: Knoxville News-Sentinel story
here.
Joe Tarr weighs in on the redesign of Krutch Park
in the April 15 Metro Pulse, entitled "Urban
Sensitivity."
UT Gardens have beennamed a level-three arboretum by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council,
as a result of having 95 labeled tree species. Read more here.
Read The
Tennessee Tree Massacre in the latest issue of OnEarth, a quarterly magazine
put out by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Quote of the day:
"With so many trees being replaced by asphalt, a little busted pavement is a small cost to save a notable tree."
Leigh Chagnon, Gentry-Griffey Funeral Chapel.
Read about the champion Douglas Fir that was saved by Mr. Chagnon when faced
with its potential destruction by sanitary sewer relocation. To
the right, the Cedar Lane Fir is pictured in front of Gentry-Griffey Funeral Chapel in Fountain City.
It will be spared and utility work rerouted around it. It's listed as the largest tree of its species in Tennessee.
Volunteers
from more than eight companies work to move two magnolia trees named Bill and
Victor a short distance to James Agee Park at the corner of
James Agee Street and Laurel Avenue.
Heck, we move historic houses around to avoid their
demolition in the pathway of development; why not trees? An old idea that
is finally catching on in Knoxville, thanks to R.B. Morris, Jim Cortese and
other local tree advocates. Read
how these two 65-year old trees were moved for a new lease on life in the
James Agee Park.
For before and after photos of
different views of Krutch Park, click here.
