Photo by Emma Ruby.
Jeff Palmer felt concern Monday morning as he sat and watched construction on the corner of 9th Street and Polk result in the removal of multiple live trees.
Photo by Jeff Palmer.
The site is owned by Trinity Basin Preparatory, and a renovation and addition of the former Tyler Street Christian Academy campus is underway. When Palmer watched the site Monday, bulldozers were tearing down multiple pecan trees.
“It seems contrary to the city’s protection of canopy trees,” Palmer wrote in an email to the Advocate.
The Advocate reached out to city arborists about the tree removal Monday morning. According the city arborists, the tree tear downs had not been approved at the time of removal and further tree removal has been halted.
“We recorded four removed pecans identified on a tree survey for the site. Mitigation will be applied to these removals,” Dallas city arborist Philip Erwin told the Advocate Wednesday.
Mitigation for protected tree removal is calculated on an inch per inch basis. New trees must be planted on the lot where the removal took place. Over 40 tree species are approved by the city for tree replacements.
The school campus expansion building permit is currently under review, Erwin said. Plans for the renovation and addition are still in process, and further tree removal will not be allowed until permits are approved.
Debris from the removed trees remained on the site Wednesday morning.
