The City of West U today cut down an 80-year-old Live Oak tree outside the public works building.
The City of West U today cut down an 80-year-old Live Oak tree outside the public works building.
The tree has been declining over the last five years and the city has had its removal planned for the last two years, Public Works Director Chris Peifer said.
“That poor thing has been on the decline for the last five years,” he said. “The tree itself is battling so hard.”
Peifer said the tree’s decline is not related to the drought. It has suffered because of construction in the area since the 1980s.
The tree has been dropping branches because it could no longer produce adequate green growth on its limbs to feed itself, he said.
With the school so close by it needed to be cut down before it became more of a hazard, he said.
The city planted a Mexican Monterrey White Oak two years ago in anticipation of the Live Oaks removal. The new tree has seen 20 inches of growth in the last two years and will have more room to spread its roots once the dying tree is cut down, he said.
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- The City of West U today cut down an 80-year-old Live Oak tree outside the public works building.
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- The tree has been declining over the last five years and the city has had its removal planned for the last two years.
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- The tree has been dropping branches because it could no longer produce adequate green growth on its limbs to feed itself.
Why is it that the West U area has these issues and the area surrounding Rice U does not? What about North and South Blvd? Can someone please explain the difference? I am not aware of any plans to remove trees from the other areas, only from West U. I get it that the construction around the Public Works department may have contributed to this latest one, but what about the ones along University and Auden by West U Elementary. Can the Urban Forester and others really not make recommendations early enough to affect the outcome? Call me disappointed. I hope this is a temporary thing and a plan is in place to prevent similar issues going forward.
80 years is not old for a tree! That oak may have been old and a little stressed, but it was still alive and thriving. Bureaucrats and Developers in Houston just can’t wait to cut down old trees..it happens over and over.