9/11/02

OTHERS CAN WATCH BIRDS -- HE WATCHES TREES AT AUBURN

AUBURN -- Each year for more than a decade Auburn University's Landscape Services crews have fought battles they know they will lose in a campaign they expect to win.

Since the late 1980s, the Facilities Division Landscape Services unit, which is headed by Charlie Crawford, has been waging a campaign to extend the life of a declining number of graceful old oaks, other hardwoods and evergreens that once dominated the campus.

The campaign to plant new trees and prolong the life of mature ones is paying off as trees planted more than a decade ago are getting large enough to yield shade. While adding more trees each year, Landscape Services has strived to extend the life of mature trees that are nearing the end of their lifespan.

Crawford says the goal is not to do the impossible -- keep trees alive far beyond their expected lifespan -- but to keep the mature trees healthy and alive as long as possible.

"We have made conditions a lot better for the older trees on campus," said Crawford, a 1972 AU graduate. "Many of them are in weakened condition either because of their age or traumas they have suffered in the past, but we have made progress."

Although the largest trees are regarded as historic by many people, few trees on campus are more than 100 years old. Photos from the early 1900s show only saplings in Samford Park and a treeless plain extending to the east and south. By the mid-20th century, Auburn became noted for a canopy of large trees that provided shade and beauty. Neglect, periodic drought, storms and construction combined to take their toll on the mature trees in the following decades.

The counterattack launched in the 1980s sustained a setback in 1995, when Hurricane Opal wiped out many large trees across campus. Many of those trees were already weakened and would have died by now, anyway, but Crawford said conditions are better today for the remaining mature trees than they were before Opal.

Drought, rather than hurricanes, has caused the most tree loss over the decades, Crawford notes. The impact of drought has been reduced by the widespread installation of irrigation systems on campus during the 1990s. Landscape crews also remove dead limbs and treat endangered trees for disease and insects as soon as signs are spotted.

A tree preservation committee started in 1989 brings faculty from AU's School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences together with landscape workers to monitor and improve conditions for campus trees.

"We are working with some of the top people in the field, and we are making good progress because of their support," Crawford said.

The remaining old trees in Samford Park and at Toomeršs Corner are on the watch list because of their historic and cultural significance at Auburn.

The Toomer's Corner trees are frequently draped in toilet paper by Auburn fans following athletic victories, but Crawford said other circumstances create equal or greater stress on the trees. Those two trees are at greater risk because they are Live Oaks, which are not native to the area.

In addition, being at a busy downtown intersection, they are subject to stress from paving over of roots as well as automobile pollutants and damage from construction. A few months ago, a car even smashed into the larger, healthier of the two trees, ripping away a chuck of bark the size of a stadium seat.

Crawford said he takes special note of the trees in historic Samford Park and at Toomer's Corner because of their prominence. Although football crowds are the most visible stress factor in those areas, he noted, "The trees have lived under these conditions for decades."

A greater threat, he says, is nature.

"Even with irrigation, a severe drought can raise the soil temperature and do a lot of damage to trees that are already weakened," Crawford said.

As the largest trees die, the university moves quickly to replace them with young trees that are larger than most of those planted in commercial areas. Depending on location and need, Landscape Services will replace a large dead tree with native hardwoods, usually oak, that have diameters of three to seven inches.

Crawford said trees with larger diameters are sometimes needed for immediate impact. However, he noted, the stress and mortality rate of transplantation increases with the size of the tree.

"We are ready to replace a dying tree quickly when we need to, but our top goal is to keep the mature ones alive and healthy as long as possible," he said.

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CONTACT: Crawford, 334/844-4556; School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, 844-1007.