WVU begins removal to ensure safety on campus
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
The historic white tree across from Stewart Hall is gone.
The American sycamore in front of Elizabeth Moore Hall is one of five trees West Virginia University is removing as part of efforts to ensure pedestrian and campus safety in the downtown area of campus.
WVU began removing the trees Wednesday and work is expected to be complete Tuesday.
Other trees to be removed are the:
- American elm between Martin Hall and Elizabeth Moore Hall.
- Sweetgum on the southside of the Purinton House.
The university removed two trees — the sugar maple on the eastern side of Chitwood Hall and the red oak between Elizabeth Moore Hall and Purinton House — during spring break in mid-March.
WVU planned to remove the three remaining historic trees after many students, faculty and staff left campus for winter break, which began just before Thanksgiving.
The university also plans to remove a non-historic sugar maple on the northeast corner of Colson Hall during this time.
“Many of these trees have undergone significant mitigation work since the 1960s, including pouring concrete into the base of the American sycamore in front of Elizabeth Moore Hall,” said Joshua Pritts, campus arborist at WVU. “It’s an unfortunate but a real part of a tree’s lifecycle that we lose them to storm events, pests, disease and abiotic factors.”
To accommodate the removal of the American sycamore in front of Elizabeth Moore Hall, University Avenue will be reduced to a single lane for vehicular traffic from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Friday.
To honor these historic trees and other trees that have been removed across campus, the Facilities Management Roads and Grounds team is working with the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design to develop an urban wood program that will make products from the trees’ residual timber.
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