2008 Woodie Awards
Campus deforestation
Some trees will cost several thousand to move
Terri L. Lane
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: News
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Another set of trees that has already been cut down is the group of trees that were once located in the Caesar Chavez courtyard. Fuller claims that the trees were diseased and therefore needed to be removed. Though this is a legitimate reason to remove trees, Zermeño still has a problem. The faculty was not informed why those trees were cut. Zermeño explained, "I haven't seen a memo, or an e-mail or anything about why those trees were cut."
And when Zermeño was asked how he felt about diseased trees being cut, he simply replied, "Replace them. If you are going to take out a tree just replace it with another one."
Other than the aforemen-tioned trees above, where else will people see trees being cut? Fuller says, because of the new plans for the driveway around the campus, most of the trees 10-20 feet from the Hesperian Boulevard curb will be removed. There will also be various trees removed throughout the campus, such as in the area near the football field. They will be replaced with a new snack bar and a golf putting green.
When Chabot was planned 42 years ago, they saw it as a place to be surrounded with a variety of trees. Zermeño said, "When they first envisioned the campus, they wanted a campus with a variety of many of different kinds of trees that you could observe when you walked around." And now the campus is being altered into an open campus with fewer trees. Fuller said, "The focus of the campus is going to change. We have always maintained this area (trees located between Hesperian Blvd. and the campus) as a green buffer area between the city and the campus to keep it a quiet isolated campus. The new thinking is to open up the campus to the community. The way of looking at the campus is going to change, and the trees don't really fit into this new image."
Why does the campus need to be more open? Zermeño said, "The administration says that people drive down Hesperian and do not know that Chabot Campus is there. That is their rational for cutting down the trees."
So the once well-known lush campus students enjoy today will soon be become a desert like campus with new buildings, plenty of additional parking and stumps where full grown trees once stood.
And when Zermeño was asked how he felt about diseased trees being cut, he simply replied, "Replace them. If you are going to take out a tree just replace it with another one."
Other than the aforemen-tioned trees above, where else will people see trees being cut? Fuller says, because of the new plans for the driveway around the campus, most of the trees 10-20 feet from the Hesperian Boulevard curb will be removed. There will also be various trees removed throughout the campus, such as in the area near the football field. They will be replaced with a new snack bar and a golf putting green.
When Chabot was planned 42 years ago, they saw it as a place to be surrounded with a variety of trees. Zermeño said, "When they first envisioned the campus, they wanted a campus with a variety of many of different kinds of trees that you could observe when you walked around." And now the campus is being altered into an open campus with fewer trees. Fuller said, "The focus of the campus is going to change. We have always maintained this area (trees located between Hesperian Blvd. and the campus) as a green buffer area between the city and the campus to keep it a quiet isolated campus. The new thinking is to open up the campus to the community. The way of looking at the campus is going to change, and the trees don't really fit into this new image."
Why does the campus need to be more open? Zermeño said, "The administration says that people drive down Hesperian and do not know that Chabot Campus is there. That is their rational for cutting down the trees."
So the once well-known lush campus students enjoy today will soon be become a desert like campus with new buildings, plenty of additional parking and stumps where full grown trees once stood.
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