The Voice - Student Newspaper

GCC replaces over-grown trees with fresh pine trees

"Woodman, spare that tree! Touch not a single bough!"

Thus begins a George Pope Morris poem that students sometimes memorize, but it's not exactly the way things have played out in a tree-replacement project at Glendale Community College (GCC).

On Jan. 12, workers launched a weeklong vegetation effort by removing 59 mature trees between the sidewalk and curb on the north side along the half-mile stretch of roadway between 59th and 63rd avenues of Olive Ave.

The trees – mainly oak, eucalyptus and acacias – had grown well above the height of overhead power lines along the southern edge of the campus, said Al Gonzales, facilities director at GCC.

That posed the potential disruption of electrical service during high winds and created a maintenance headache for Arizona Public Service Co., Gonzales said. The utility had to keep the trees trimmed and away from the power lines.

In addition, the trees had large limbs that had extended over Olive Ave., creating possible sight and other hazards to passing motorists, Gonzales said.

The removed trees were replaced by 41 Mondale pines that were planted along Olive Ave., but about 35 feet north of the sidewalk, so they won't extend in the power lines and have to be trimmed when they mature in about five years, he said.

Also, 18 other trees, including carob and a few flowering varieties, were planted along the main entrance to GCC, Gonzales said. The trees, when fully mature, will provide shade to students waiting for rides, he added.

"Right now things look a little bare, but we'll all be very happy when the trees are fully mature," Gonzales said.

Allen Ferguson, the landscaping director at GCC, said the Mondale pines, a cone-shaped evergreen, maintain a rapid growth rate of three to six feet per year, maturing at 30 to 40 feet tall and 15 to 25 feet wide.

Crews have installed a half-inch water line to keep the trees irrigated, Ferguson said. The college worked with APS and Glendale officials in conducting the tree-replacement project.

"It was a great idea," Ferguson said. "Everybody is going to save money in the long run."

Alan Bunnell, a spokesman for APS, described the effort of one of many "vegetation projects" that the utility is conducting throughout Arizona. The aim is to reduce the cost of keeping trees trimmed away from power lines, he said. Glendale joined in the project by having another dozen trees removed and replaced along a quarter-mile stretch of Olive Ave., between 63rd and 65th avenues, said Stuart Kent, the city's field operations director.

In addition, the city partnered with GCC in the irrigation line, Stuart said.