Chabot Spectator

Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jack Barnwell Head groundskeeper, Tom Fuller, describes the future landscaping plans for Chabot College.

Left and right they are disappearing like they are going out of style. Where they once graced the presence of students and added an environmental sensibility to the campus, they will now be replaced with pavements or buildings, leaving the campus less canopied.

Chabot is in the process of a renovation, a renovation that will not only change the general layout of the campus but also the landscaping. Chabot is a campus secluded by lush beautiful aging trees, which will now be replaced with a new driveway that will surround most of the campus and a new "welcome" building for students. The once full and green campus is becoming a campus full of parking and pavement.

Thomas Fuller, head of the maintenance department at Chabot College, said in an interview, "Basically they are not taking trees down just for the sake of removing trees; it is because they are making other plans and the trees are in the wrong place."

And who exactly are "they" that Fuller speaks of? According to an interview with Francisco Zermeño, full-time Spanish teacher at Chabot College, "It has to be the administration that is having these trees cut down. They chose to make the decisions and not to inform anyone."

When Zermeño was asked whether or not he would prefer the money to be spent to move the already existing trees out of the way of the new renovation plans instead of buying new ones, he said "exactly."

He continued on to say, "We will take out healthy trees to replace them with new ones. Those trees represent Hayward, they represent Chabot."

He believes that with the new bond measure for Chabot, there is enough money to move these trees to a different location still on campus rather than cutting them down.

Fuller sees otherwise. Fuller says that for the older trees it will cost about $8,000 to $10,000 to uproot them and replant them. The larger trees, such as the oaks, are especially very difficult. The smaller trees such as the ginkgo trees in the smoking area between Building 800 and 500 will cost several thousand of dollars to move. Also, he said the success of moving the smaller trees is better than moving the large oaks. He said, "I would hate to spend $8,000 to see the tree die anyways."

Continued...

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