Tree Protection Done Right

Project: Publix and Sun Bank Construction
Location: The Hammock, Palm Coast, Florida
When: July 2004 - November 2005
Contractors: Continental Properties Company, Inc., Menomonee Fall, WI
and McIntyre Elwell & Strammer, Sarasota, FL.
Property Owner: Rosemary Myers

Approximately 3,000 total DBH inches of trees on site and 1,930 inches (87 trees) were preserved on the 5-acre site

3 trees had diameters (DBH) greater than 60 inches

11 trees had diameters greater than 40 inches

30 trees had a $10,000 penalty clause established by the property owner. If any of the trees were damaged or removed within 3 years following construction, the contractor had to pay $10,000 for each tree damaged or removed.

Only one tree could not be accomodated and was removed. The penalty was paid.

One 45-inch diameter live oak was moved 45 feet out of the planned entrance road. Click here to see a photo about the moving the large tree.

Tree Preservation Takes Root with Oak's Transplant

By NICOLE SERVICE
Staff Writer, Daytona News Journal

April 9, 2005

THE HAMMOCK -- Some developers would find it easier to cut down a giant 100-year-old oak than move it out of the path of their project.

After all, it's an expensive proposition costing $30,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's also time-consuming, taking about 10 days, and the probability of the tree surviving the move is usually low.

But a persistent property owner who believes in the value of saving old trees convinced Continental Properties, developing a Publix along State Road A1A and 16th Road, to move instead of destroy a majestic live oak standing in the way of progress.

By this weekend, the tree will be 30 feet from where it spent its long life -- just far enough to be out of the path of a proposed driveway.

"It's a bit unusual and unique," said Tom Gay project manager with McIntryer Elwell & Stammer, the general contractors. "I have been in this business 25 years and I have never seen anything like this before."

So how does one move an oak with a 50-inch-diameter trunk?

The experts at Davey Large Tree Moving readied the tree Friday to be uprooted using four giant jacks with large beams capable of lifting 800,000 pounds.

The slow process involves hand-excavating, shaping and encapsulating the tree's root area in burlap and wire. Workers then drive pipes beneath the bottom of the tree's root ball to create a structural bottom with steel beam, which is used to lift the tree out of its hole.

"All we do is move trees. If God can grow it, we can move it," said Jason Williams, the main office's assistant manager in Texas.

He estimated the costs for moving the Hammock tree at $30,000, and said though some projects cost more than $100,000, he finds it's a growing trend with developers willing to preserve trees.

He said the company moves about 15 large trees a year, with Wal-Mart as one of its biggest customers.

Although this was the first time he had seen it done, project manager Gay also believed there is a growing trend toward preservation.

"More and more people are doing it," Gay said. "It's something that has to be done as more people move into the state."

Friday night, workers had the tree wrapped up like a giant potted plant, which was how property owner Rosemary Meyers described it. The actual moving and replanting won't happen until either late today or early Sunday.

Meyers is leasing the land to the developers. Everyone from the contractor to county employees said it was because of Meyers that so many trees on the property were saved, especially the oak, which isn't the largest tree on the property. There are three oaks with 60-inch trunks.

"She was insistent about it," Gay said. "She kept telling us to do all we could."

Meyers said tree preservation is important to her.

"When you cut down a 100-year-old oak tree, it can't be replaced," she said.

She goes out to the property daily to watch the tree-moving process. "It's amazing to watch," she said. She added that she hopes this project will act as a model for future projects.

Another factor that went into saving the tree was an ordinance aimed at protecting the county's designated Scenic Highway S.R. A1A tree canopy.

It requires that 50 percent of a property's tree canopy be saved, which is usually an encouragement to save the largest trees, said Walter Fufidio, the county's planning director.

Tim Telfer, the county's environmental planner, said the Publix project is the first use of the S.R. A1A land-clearing and tree-protection ordinance adopted last year.

He said it was a good first application.

"It's kind of a test project for us," Telfer said. "And what we see here is a site, that's when it's fully developed, is going to house a small Publix and a bank, but still retain the old growth that's existing on site."

Chuck Lippi, a St. Augustine arborist who is consulting on the project, says the tree has better than a 50 percent survival rate.

"That isn't very good," Lippi said. "It's still better than the earlier prognosis for the tree. If we had done nothing, it would have died for sure."

Williams is a bit more optimistic, giving it a 90 percent chance. He said they'll be doing some "pretty extreme" maintenance to help the tree along, such as irrigating its canopy.

Gay is also rooting for the tree.

"A lot of effort has gone into saving it. I hope it survives," he said. "All we can do is hope for the best."

 

Arborist Note

Although I was enthusiastic about moving the tree, the timing of the move and the rootball size, in my opinion, was wrong. The developer, who was planning to cut the tree down during the tree during the initial stages of construction, decided surprizingly to retain the tree and move it 45 feet out of the entrance road. It was April and the tree was just about to flush out its new spring growth. Furthermore, the negotiated rootball size that would be cut for the tree was reduced from 30 feet in diameter to 24 feet in diameter. But we had to work with the situation we had. Water was added to the rootball three times a day for the following six months and irrigation sprinklers were talled in the canopy to wet the foliage three times during the warmest part of the day and reduce water loss through evapotranspiration. In 2009 the tree is doing fine with no noticeable thinning of the foliage or branch dieback.