Posted on Thu, Jan. 22, 2004
Group fighting to save cherry trees
Crux of the battle: Are they mature, or are they old and need the
ax?
by Michelle Crouch, Staff Writer
Freedom Park will soon have 54 new cherry trees along Little Sugar Creek, but some of the park's biggest advocates aren't happy about it.
The new trees will replace 30 taken down during the restoration of Little Sugar Creek, and 23 that will be chopped down because they are aging, decaying or damaged, park officials said.
"We could wait until they fall over, but we think it's appropriate to go ahead and address the needs now," said Don Morgan, a park services manager with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. "We would like the trees to become more uniform in height and size. We think by replacing them as a group we'll achieve that look over time."
Friends of Freedom Park, a 100-member advocacy group, is questioning the decision to cut down trees; the group cites certified arborist Patrick George, who says they're worth saving.
"I walked through there, and I certainly didn't see any I would take down," said George, who owns Heartwood Tree Service. "Yoshina cherries were first introduced in this country on the tidal basin in Washington, D.C. Some of the ones up there are 80-plus years old, and they're still thriving."
Morgan said the park department's horticulture staff examined each tree and determined whether it should be replaced. He emphasized that the new trees would not be tiny seedlings, but would stand 10 to 12 feet tall, with trunks at least two inches in diameter.
Members of Friends of Freedom Park will ask the Central Park District 3 Advisory Council at 6 p.m. Tuesday night to recommend saving the trees.
"These trees have years of life left in them," said Robert FitzPatrick, the group's president. "You're talking about taking trees that are fully mature, very large, and replacing them with little planters. Something is wrong with this picture."
Freedom Park's cherry trees are considered some of Charlotte's finest. They are planted along the creek's banks, and the blossoms' perfume announces the arrival of spring each year to thousands of visitors.
About 30 to 40 of the trees were taken down last year as part of an ongoing county storm water project to restore Little Sugar Creek.
"We did everything possible to save as many trees as we could," said Andrew Burg, the water resources engineer overseeing the project. "Some were in the way. Some were diseased. Some were plain old."
Most were on the eastern, wooded side of the creek and were replaced with native trees such as birches that will hang over the creek to provide shade.
The other 23 trees to be taken down are on the western side of the creek, near the pond. All 54 new cherry trees will be planted on that side, creating a continuous parallel look next to the realigned creek and greenway.
Replacing the trees will cost about $6,000. Morgan said the goal is to preserve the park's integrity. FitzPatrick said he has the same goal, but argues it can be achieved only by preserving the mature trees.
"These trees have meaning, just like old houses have meaning," he said. "They have character. These trees are trademarks of the city."
Want To Go?
The Central Park District 3 Advisory Council will discuss the plan to take down some of Freedom Park's cherry trees at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Carole A. Hoefener Community Services Center, 610 E. Seventh Street. For more information, call (704) 353-1236.
Posted on Sun, Feb. 08, 2004
Signatures gathered to save cherry trees
Group fights county's plans to remove, replace old trees
KAREN CIMINO, Staff Writer
Protesters gathered at Freedom Park on Saturday, hanging notes and artwork on the gnarled limbs of 45-year-old cherry trees they hope to save from county plans to chop them down.
Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation plans to chop down 23 old, decaying or damaged cherry trees and plant 54 new ones as part of the Little Sugar Creek restoration plan.
Friends of Freedom Park, a group fighting to preserve the trees, gathered near them Saturday afternoon, talking to park-goers and collecting signatures for a petition they will present to county officials at a meeting at Veterans Park on Thursday. So far, they've gathered about 200 names and have a Web site they hope will draw more support.
"These trees are tradition," said 57-year-old Charlotte native Robert FitzPatrick, president of Friends of Freedom Park, a group that has worked to preserve the park since the 1970s. "People got married under these trees; they've photographed them.
"The main theme for us is to keep the park natural, to preserve it," he said.
FitzPatrick, who grew up near Freedom Park, said he likes it the way it is. It reminds him of his childhood, playing baseball and football games, sledding there when it snowed, taking walks under the trees as a teenager.
"I think a lot of people are saying, `Leave my park alone,' " he said.
Park and Recreation officials couldn't be reached Saturday.
Maarten Pennink, 65, lives on East Boulevard near the park. He helped hang different messages on the trees. One read: "Please save these trees." Another loosely quoted Ghandi: "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Pennink is originally from Amsterdam, a city rich with well-preserved architecture and history -- something he said influences his opinion about chopping down the cherry trees.
"I think that it has to do with tradition," he said. "What Charlotte does is take old stuff down and replace it with new. If you don't have history, you don't have character."
To many, Freedom Park's cherry trees are living history because they've been there so long.
But Melissa McMahan, who visits the park often, questioned the group's mission while she walked her dog, Gus, with a friend through the park. She said sometimes preservation requires change.
"I don't see why they think it's a bad thing to take them out if they're going to replace them," she said.
FitzPatrick tried to convince her otherwise.
After talking to FitzPatrick, McMahan said she still held the same opinion, adding that "everyone should try to come to a solution and not just fight about it."
Want to Go?
The Central Park District 3 Advisory Council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday at the indoor shelter at Veterans Park, 2136 Central Ave., to discuss the cherry trees. For more information, call (704) 353-1236.
To sign the online petition that Friends of Freedom Park has started, visit www.enjoylifenow.com/cherrytreespetition.html.
A group trying to save 21 cherry trees from being chopped down in Freedom Park presented a park advisory council with a 350-plus-signature petition at a public hearing Thursday. Friends of Freedom Park is fighting to preserve the trees that Mecklenburg County park officials plan to cut down because they say the trees are aging, decaying or damaged.
They want to replace them with about 50 new ones as part of the Little Sugar Creek restoration plan. About three dozen people attended the meeting, nearly all of them in favor of preserving the trees. Opponents of the county's plan recalled childhood memories near the trees, which they called historic.
George Rose of Charlotte read a poem - titled "Free to be Gnarly" - to members of the Central Park District 3 Advisory Council, which could recommend to the Park and Recreation Commission that all or some of the trees stay or be removed. "These plans make me nervous, give me pause!," the 60-year-old read. "We destroy the young and discard the old. Aware of this body becoming wizened and gnarly, how soon will my gnarliness offend thee, too?"
Don Morgan, a maintenance management planner with Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation, said he understands the concerns of the people opposed to the county's plan. "There are no plans to remove all of the old trees," he said after the meeting at Veterans Park. "I am focused on removing the trees that are structurally unsound." Terry Thirion, who is part of the group that has worked to preserve Freedom Park since the 1970s, said the trees need to be respected. "Those trees have achieved something," said Thirion. "It's about respect for nature. We have very, very little respect in Charlotte for age."
Park officials said earlier they planned to remove 23 cherry trees, but revised their count to 21 after further inspection. Replacing the trees will cost about $6,000. Park officials commissioned a tree report by Bruce Fraedrich, an adjunct professor of forestry at Clemson University. He said only one of the 23 trees could be saved. The rest, he wrote, "have reached the end of their useful lifespan, and removal and replacement is the only reasonable option to protect the public."
Earnest Winston: (704) 358-5108; ewinston@charlotteobserver.com
Posted on Wed, Mar. 03, 2004
Freedom Park's cherry trees get reprieve
County yields to protest, wants to spare trees
by Michelle Crouch, Staff Writer
They withstood Hurricane Hugo.
They fought ice storms, heavy snow and deadly diseases.
Now, almost two dozen of Freedom Park's signature cherry trees are on the verge of winning their toughest battle yet: Mecklenburg County apparently is backing off its plan to chop them down.
Don Morgan of the Park and Recreation Department confirmed Tuesday he's working on a contract with local arborist Patrick George to care for the aging trees for a small fee.
The county's change of heart comes after more than 350 park supporters signed a petition opposing the removal plan. Others, including George, lobbied Mecklenburg County commissioners and held a protest under the 20-foot-tall trees.
"Those trees are something I always wait for and look for in the spring," said Eleanor Brawley, who has lived in Charlotte for 32 years. "When I had my first grandchild, I took pictures of the blossoms, and now one of them is framed in her nursery."
Park officials in January said the trees needed axing because they were aged, decayed or damaged. Some could have lived longer, they acknowledged, but they thought it was better to replace them all at once to achieve a more uniform look.
Since then, Morgan said, he and George have examined the trees together and have had "some really constructive conversation."
"Park and Rec feels good about (George's) recommendations," Morgan said.
Morgan and other officials didn't anticipate the storm of opposition from folks who grew up with the cherry blossoms, folks such as Robert FitzPatrick, who heads an advocacy group called Friends of Freedom Park.
"People rallied around this because they want the park to look natural, to show real nature," FitzPatrick said. "They don't want it to have a look of a country club or golf club."
After the contract is finalized, George, an arborist with Heartwood Tree Service, will test the 21 trees frequently to ensure they're structurally sound. And he said he will use special pruning techniques developed in England to protect the oldest ones, which he predicted could live 50 more years.
Freedom Park's oldest cherry trees went in the ground a half century ago along the banks of Little Sugar Creek. Today, about 90 cherry trees live in the park, including 30 planted by volunteers two weeks ago. Considered some of Charlotte's finest trees, their pink blossoms announce the arrival of spring each year to thousands of visitors.
About 30 to 40 cherry trees were taken down last year as part of an ongoing county effort to restore the creek.
Others have gaping holes in their trunks, rotted areas and gnarled limbs. George said the tree hollows provide a home for animals, insects and plants -- and also serve as inspiration.
"They may look ugly, but you have to see them for what they are," he said. "The gnarly-ness and the wounds speak of the Hugo damage they suffered and survived ... ice storms they suffered and survived ...
"And they'll still put on an unbelievable display of flowering this
spring."
Posted on Fri, Mar. 05, 2004
Residents' outcry apparently saves aging cherries from
the ax
Freedom's trees
Charlotte prides itself on its trees, so it shouldn't have shocked folks when hundreds of Charlotteans got mad that Mecklenburg County's Park and Recreation Department wanted to cut down about two dozen aging Yoshino cherry trees in Freedom Park and plant new ones.
The park department's reasoning was that more than 20 trees -- estimated at 30 to 50 years old -- were at or beyond Yoshinos' average natural life span of 40. Some suffered from decay or damage. To replace them individually as they died over the years would create a ragged look, park officials thought, so to preserve the well-loved spectacle of pink blossoms in spring it would be best to replace all the trees at once.
That idea hit a chain saw of opposition, a primal scream of anger from local tree- and park-lovers.
It didn't help that the proposal came after months of disruption in the park from a project to improve water quality in Little Sugar Creek and ease flooding downstream. That project, from the county's stormwater services department, resulted in 57 trees being removed, including some large old trees and some cherries. Although thousands of trees were replanted, the trauma for park- and tree-lovers has been intense. Proposing more cherry tree destruction was like pouring salt in a throbbing wound.
A group called Friends of Freedom Park rallied supporters. They signed petitions. They lobbied county commissioners and held a protest under the trees. Comments on their web site illustrate the special place the trees hold in local memory and affection. Those trees are our friends, people wrote. We strolled past them as newlyweds. We played with our babies under their branches. Don't cut them down just because they're aging, because we're all aging, growing old together.
Park officials, to their credit, listened. They're working out an agreement with Charlotte arborist Patrick George, whose generous offer is to care for the aging cherries for a nominal cost. Mr. George hopes to introduce tree-preservation techniques used in Britain to maintain centuries-old trees.
The agreement sounds like an excellent solution -- for this set of trees. We hope county officials -- and city, too, though it had no role in the cherry tree brouhaha -- will take a larger lesson to heart. Local government should improve its treatment of other venerable trees in its public projects.
Sometimes project engineers treat old trees more like old fence posts, to be removed when inconvenient, than old friends. City and county governments have pushed in recent years to adopt more tree-friendly policies and stronger rules requiring developers to save some trees. Government, in its own work, should provide an example of top-notch treatment for trees. Yes, that might mean slightly higher costs for some projects for tree preservation and care. We expect most Charlotteans would approve.
Engineering studies and cost-benefit analyses are important tools, but they can fail to measure some significant things. How do you put a value on a city's shared memory? What's the line item for 50 years of a tree's life? How do you engineer affection for Charlotte's special places?
Local officials too often forget those intangibles. Maybe seeing the cherry trees abloom each spring in Freedom Park will help them remember.