1,200 Trees to be Removed from Arch Grounds
London Plane Trees being housed at Hoette Farms in New Florence, Mo. The trees will eventually replace the Ash trees on the processional walks on the Arch grounds. (Photo courtesy of CityArchRiver 2015 Foundation)
News
ST. LOUIS (AP/KMOX) – The removal of more than 1,000 trees on the grounds of the Gateway Arch is about to begin.
KMOV-TV reports that the National Parks Service will start the process of removing 1,200 trees today. About 800 of those trees are expected to die due to an invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer, which destroys ash trees.
Bob Moore of the National Park Service says that in addition to the concerns about the pests, the trees have reached the end of their useful life cycle and would have to be removed within a few years anyway.
Moore says the trees that currently line the walkways are confined to boxes that hindered their root growth, and now they’re dying out.
That’s all going to change with better irrigation and drainage in those spots, Moore says, as well as replacing the topsoil to give the replacement London Plane Tree variety a better chance to take root and thrive on the Arch Grounds.
The problem goes back to well before the Arch was constructed a half century ago, according to Moore.
He points out that before the land was cleared to build the Arch, it had been a bustling downtown trade center for centuries.
“They just buried all that stuff,” he says. “A lot of those things are just under the grounds: brick walls, old boilers, Lord knows, is in there.”
As part of the project to renovate the Arch area, more than 4,100 new trees are expected to be planted in the spring of 2016.
This story was updated at 10:58 a.m. on Oct. 29.
(TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
MORE LOCAL NEWS:
