Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Casey Jay A worker for facility services cut down dying trees in front of the Faculty building on Thursday to make way for new trees.

Students and faculty passing by Tower Lawn last week may have been disturbed by the loud buzz of chainsaws and the absence of several large trees that once lined the walkway.

Anthony Montano, a tree-trimmer for facility services, said this is all part of a long-time plan to replace the dying and damaged trees in sections of 11 at a time.

Montano and his team of four or five workers are responsible for removing the old trees and replacing them with new ones.

"We should have the new trees planted within two to three weeks," Montano said.

Dennis Suit, manager of facility services, said the trees surrounding tower lawn are fruitless mulberries approaching the end of their life cycle.

"They were planted in 1966 or 1967 and have a 40 to 60 year life cycle," Suit said. "Fruitless mulberries are fast-growing trees. Fast-growing trees tend to be shorter lived."

Montano and Suit said many of the trees also suffered damage from splitting, rotting and termites.

Splitting trees are dangerous because they can eventually fall apart and hurt someone.

Suit also said, "If you look closely, you'll see branching structures that were damaged through the years by trucks coming through."

This project was not met with appreciation by everyone on campus.

The chainsaws used by the workers disrupted some classes in rooms close to the work zone.

"I guess I don't mind them cutting down the trees," said Luke Cunningham, a junior photojournalism major. "The noise was pretty loud and obnoxious during class though."

Some environmentally conscious students and faculty felt that the project violated more than their quiet time.

The occasional call of "tree-killer" could be heard as passersby observed Montano and his team at work.

Montano said he did not receive too many complaints during this project.

"I only got two this time," he said. "We explain to people what we're doing and then they usually understand, unless they're a real tree-lover."

English professor Cynthia Baer said she already missed the trees that grew right outside her office, located on the first floor of the Faculty Office building.

"I understand that the trees are being replaced and that they were cut down because some of them were diseased," Baer wrote in an e-mail. "Some of them, not the whole lot. We're taking down the lot, I understand, because it would offend our acutely developed sense of landscape aesthetics to have trees of varying degrees of growth on the walkway," she said.

Montano said facilities began growing the replacement trees about seven or eight years ago in a lot near the track at south campus.

"This has been planned for awhile," he said. "It's something that needed to be done."

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