Administration defends tree cutting

12/2/09 - During the past couple weeks, trees at the University of Rhode Island have been removed and students and faculty are starting to take notice.Bob Weygand, vice president of administration and finance, said the URI's Land and Grounds department employees have been pruning trees and removing dead and partially damaged trees for many years now.

The trees that are being cut down are diseased, or are crowding and damaging the buildings, he said.

"There are unfortunately, trees that have been misplaced, and we hate to take them down, but when we do we make sure we put another one up of the same species," Weygand said.

He said the university has a policy in which faculty members who use the landscape as a teaching environment are notified about the removal of certain trees. Weygand added that URI is trying its best to maintain the arboretum, a place where a vast variety of woody plants are grown for scientific, educational and ornamental purposes on campus.

"It's unfortunate that the tree pruning, which is for the health of the landscape of the campus, is appearing to look like were destroying the campus," Weygand said. "And that's the furthest thing from the truth."

Weygand, who is a landscape architect and one of the 500 "fellows" of the American Society of Landscape Architecture, said he has many new landscape projects planned for URI .

Next semester, Lands and Grounds will start at the Visitors Center and place walkways and plants around Edwards, Swan, Green, Ranger, Quinn, and Pastore halls.

The latest project is the removal of the Norway maple along the Hamerschlag Mall walkway, which starts at the Robert L. Carother's Library and leads to the Memorial Union.

Weygand said the maples are diseased and damaging the brick pathway.

The plan for the mall, which will become a vehicle-free zone, is to widen the pathway and plant more "graceful" trees and grass, and to landscape the area.

"This whole thing will be landscaped as well as the visitors center parking lot, including landscape lighting and drainage improvements," he said.

In February, administration will ask students to write what they would like to see around campus when it comes to the landscaping project areas.

The projects that are in beginning stages will cost a total of $3 million, Weygand said. These projects however, are funded on private and state levels and not student's tuition.

"We may catch some flack, I guess, but it's really to enhance the quality of the campus," he said.