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Plant of the Week
Post Oak
Latin: Quercus stellata
Taxes or trees? The recent decision of the Fayetteville City Board to create
an exception to its own laws on tree protection so that a department store can
build in northwest Arkansas has angered a lot of the residents of the city.
The board's 5-to-4 decision has spawned a tree sitter and a petition drive
avowing a boycott against the chain store before it even opens.
The trees at the center of this controversy are a Civil War age stand of about
80 post oaks that many feel deserve protection, not because the species is rare,
but because of their massive size. These trees are about 100 feet tall with
trunk diameters approaching 36 inches. They stand in a widely spaced grove with
grass beneath and are a glimpse back to what Fayetteville was like prior to the
Civil War.
Waterman Ornsby, a newspaper man who rode through Fayetteville in 1858 on the
Butterfield Overland Stage on its first trip to San Francisco, characterized the
city as a "prairie in the mountains." He describes the widely spaced post oak
groves as open areas with no undergrowth that remind him of driving through an
orchard.
Post oaks are not trees of commerce. They grow too slowly and their transplant
survival is too poor for the nurseryman to deal with. As a member of the white
oak subgenus they are able to attain considerable age. In open prairie, stands a
300-year-old specimen would be a grande dame, but on a dry, rocky upland site, a
tree twice that age but a fourth the size might be found.
The argument of development versus environment is an old one and usually takes
the guise of "jobs (or tax revenue for the city) or trees -- you can’t have them
both." The same argument was made by the corporate world about water and air
pollution regulations a generation ago, but by all indications business has
flourished under these types of environmental regulations. If good planning is
used it is possible to preserve trees and still enjoy a healthy business
atmosphere. If trees are to be saved the engineering and architectural team in
charge must look at the site and modify the plan in compliance with tree
protection regulations.
Zoning regulations, and the tree protection provisions that fall under the large
scale development phase of the ordinances, are often considered an infringement
on private property rights by developers. But the citizens and the courts have
long held that reasonable and evenly applied zoning regulations are in the best
interest of a community and are defensible.
Environmental protection and preservation ordinances are newer than general
zoning ordinances and developers are often given a pass in following the letter
of the regulation.
Keeping old trees alive during construction is a pretty simple proposition.
Basically, they must be left undisturbed with enough root room to provide for
their long term support. The area must be cordoned off and no vehicle access
allowed. Also, the natural drainage conditions of the site must not be
drastically changed or the trees may drown from impounded water. Trees such as
the post oaks under discussion here have roots that extend about twice the
height of the tree in all directions. While maintaining the area beneath the
drip line is a start, such meager protection probably will not be enough to see
the trees survive another century.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
May 19, 2000
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