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Resourceful
Planning
By
Dallas standards, this is the forest primeval. Along
parts of the Trinity River are towering hundred-year-old trees, the cool
smell of damp greenery and a congenial habitat for coyotes, foxes and at
least one Eagle. Don
Henley—a co-founder of The Eagles, Dallas resident and passionate
environmentalist—will be the best-known member of the Dallas Historic
Tree Coalition at a woodland ceremony scheduled for Monday. The
coalition plans to designate its first official historic tree near the
Trinity River: a bur oak that may be more than 150 years old. And
Mr. Henley, who has been providing quiet moral and financial support to
the coalition since it formed last year, has agreed to take center stage
for the event. “Three
are people in Dallas who are interested in the environment and concerned
and capable,” I want to help get some attention for those people.” Mr.
Henley has been active in environmental issues for years. He started an
environmental institute near is hometown at Caddo Lake in far northeast
Texas. And he has been interested in the Dallas environment since moving
here more that a year ago, he said. The
bur oak three he will help designate is 11 feet around and about 80 feet
high. The shade of its canopy commands a clearing filled with poison
ivy, grapevines and other undergrowth. A ring of smaller ash trees
surrounds the clearing like an audience for theater-in-the-round. Up
in the branches of the oak, Tuesday with a power saw was arborist Steve
Houser, a trustee for the tree coalition and general manager of
Arborilogical Services. City officials and local environmentalist have
been invited for Monday’s ceremony and it would not do for an
age-weakened branch to bonk someone in mid-accolade. Most
of the current Trinity forest acreage was uncovered pastureland in
photos of the 1930s, said David Morgan, an environmental scientist whose
company is studying the Trinity for several state and city projects.
Some of the property was used to dump construction material as little as
20 years ago, he said. His
company will be starting a detailed survey of the Trinity tree
population next week, Mr. Morgan said. But
regardless of the age of the trees, the Trinity forest is a little-known
and valuable part of the Dallas landscape, Mr. Seaman said. “The
point is to bring awareness that this resource exists in an urban
setting”, he said. Urban,
it is. Bird songs compete with the thunk-think of cars speeding by on an
overpass. The howl of a nearby train whistle is not quite swallowed by
the leafy growth. The
nearness to people is one reason the coalition is not making the
location of the tree public: Vandalism is a worry. Politics
is another worry. The tree is along a portion of the Trinity where
public policy soon will be decided. To
give low-income neighborhoods the same level of flood protection
provided to downtown “Dallas and other areas along the Trinity, some
trees 00though not the big oak—probably will have to be cleared to
make way for a swale. The
swale—a small channel to conferee floodwaters—is opposed by some
environmentalist, who suggest instead buying out residents who live in
the floodplain. But Dallas officials say a voluntary buyout of property
owners in the area is neither feasible nor affordable. They say that
about 2,700 structures—representing homes and jobs for thousands of
residents—would have to be removed to provide the same level of flood
protection as would a swale A
Dallas City Council decision on how to proceed is expected by the end of
June. The
coalition will take no position on the swale plan Monday, Mr. Seaman
said. But speakers will urge officials to consider the trees in any
plans. “We
want to come up with creative solutions where everyone is a winner,
“Mr. Seaman said. But some coalition members, Mr. Henley among them, take a harder line and oppose any structural solution. City officials should investigate ways to pay for relocation of people endangered by flooding, Mr. Henley said. “We
have more important things to worry about than whether we get a new
sports arena in Dallas.” He said. |