Building With Trees: Texas Forest Service Hosts Program Focusing on Keeping Trees Healthy During Construction
As a licensed architect, Charles Todd Helton was doing “green” design work long before it had a name.
The 38-year-old son of a forester developed his passion for trees at an early age. And he’s spent the bulk of his career designing around mighty, old trees and incorporating them into his plans.
“First of all, trees are beautiful to look at and they provide other things, too. They shade your house from the sun and keep utilities low – especially during the summer, which is nice around here,” Helton said from his office in Spring, Texas. “I try to keep as many existing trees as I can.”
But there is more to saving the trees than simply opting not to cut them down, Helton and Texas Forest Service officials warn. Construction can damage the trees in your yard – even if you think you are building around them, said John Warner, urban district forester with Texas Forest Service.
Building With Trees, an all-day seminar hosted by Texas Forest Service, teaches you how to retain trees during construction and land development. It’s scheduled for 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 23, 2009, at the Lone Star Convention Center in Conroe.
Warner said the vast majority of calls he gets are from people who sought out the perfect lot dotted with mighty shade trees and then built their home right in the middle of them — only to find the trees dead within the year. They always ask the same question: “What happened?”
Building With Trees is designed to answer that question. The class will feature Dr. Charles A. Stewart, one of the nation’s leading consultants on techniques for saving trees during construction. It is the first time in more than a decade the program has been brought to Texas.
“We’re trying to bring everybody to the table so they can learn how to communicate with each other and lay out the best possible plan to retain tree cover on the property — whether it’s residential, commercial or the state,” Warner said.
Registration is $120 and includes lunch as well as an evening networking reception from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at La Torretta Del Lago Resort on Lake Conroe.
The seminar is geared to people in the construction and forestry industries, as well as landscape architects, real estate agents, elected and municipal officials, community leaders, landowners and professors of architecture, forestry, horticulture, planning and related disciplines.
Tree canopy is disappearing in the urban environments and that can lead to the creation of a heat island, or an urban area that is significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, Warner said, noting that trees provide green benefits such as cleaner air and a cooler atmosphere.
It can take 20 years before a newly-planted tree grows large enough to provide significant shade, Warner said. So it makes sense to keep alive older, larger trees. They create a more peaceful environment and are more aesthetically pleasing.
“I always think of it as one yard at a time,” Warner said, explaining how a neighborhood of 100 homes each sitting on a half-acre wooded lot can have a cumulative effect. “Pretty soon, you have a forest of trees.”
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