Colorado Boulevard trees may yet be saved

Several weeks after the City Council approved the removal of dozens of trees there are indications that they may now switch course. The item is again up for discussion at next Monday's council meeting, and email between the public and council members (passed on to the Star News) suggests that some council members may be rethinking their votes.

Sid Tyler, the lone hold out at the last vote, has been the biggest advocate of not removing the trees. We've also been getting a lot of emails from people concerned about the removal of the trees.

I would think that some sort of compromise may be possible. The concerns seem to be 1) palm trees are a terrible idea because they don't offer any shade to Colorado 2) the ficus trees are beautiful and people don't want to see them go and 3) gingko trees, slated to replace the ficus, are not big enough and don't grow fast enough to offer a lot of shade.

I would imagine that the business people who are concerned about #2 because the ficus trees roots are damaging sidewalks and sewer lines, could easily give up the other two options in a compromise if a suitable substitute tree could be found. One that would provide a lot of shade, and not have such aggressive roots. Some people will not be happy at first if any tree removal at all happens, but if a good substitute is found, the street would look good again in a few years.

We'll have a story this week, and I am going to try to get a native tree specialist on the line for possible suggestions about the best tree to plant, or maybe for a way to control the ficus trees more effectively.