Before we LEAVE for our spring break next week, we have a lot of work to do so that we can hopefully begin construction quickly after we get back. One of the things I’ve been working on this week is documenting the existing trees on site. The trees are waxmyrtles and they are currentlyconsidered as a screen between the park and Septima Clark Highway.
I started by reanalyzing our decision to remove some of the trees. Originally, we marked trees that we proposed for removal based on the height of the wall at its highest points. However, after doing some research and visiting the site again, I discovered that there are some trees that are already dead or declining. We have proposed that those trees be removed. Most of the trees are actually growing towards the highway and away from the site. This will be beneficial to us because there won’t be as much of a possibility for canopy interference. We will also be able to prevent removing some of the trees if they are pruned properly to discourage crown interference with the wall.
The roots of the trees will be hard to deal with when we are digging for the foundation of the wall but should not interefere too much after the wall is completed. They also produce suckers that will need to be pruned regularly to prevent any new growth and potential problems. Although the trees were originally planted as a screen, they currently do not provide a great screen from the road because they have become a tree form and the crown is above the height of vision. Our wall will, in some ways, replace the screen of the trees. While it is important to save the trees, some of them will have to be removed but the benefits of the wall will greatly exceed the benefits of the existing tree screen.
