On Forest Lane, dozens of butchered trees offer 'horrific' peek at Texas' future if Abbott gets his way | Commentary | Dallas News

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On Forest Lane, dozens of butchered trees offer 'horrific' peek at Texas' future if Abbott gets his way
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You can't make this stuff up: Last week, a tree-trimming company massacred dozens of live oaks on Forest Lane. Which would almost be hilarious — I mean, really, it's called Forest Lane — except it's anything but. The perps just up and decapitated the suckers — around 100, per the latest estimate — and left them for dead, or close enough, all because some out-of-town self-storage company wants its units visible from LBJ Freeway. Beware carpetbaggers swinging chainsaws.
This is illegal because the city of Dallas says so. But that may not be the case by year's end. Your governor — and, seriously, he is all yours — has other ideas.
For as long as I can remember, that short, narrow stretch of Forest, only a few feet west of Josey Lane, was lush and shaded, with limbs stretching from one side of the street to the other. Now it's a wasteland, the result of a criminal act committed in broad daylight.
Over 30 live oak trees were 'hacked' in northwest Dallas, and people aren't happy
The city received no application for a permit allowing the tree removal. David Cossum, head of sustainable development at City Hall, said they were told only that Fate-based Platinum Construction would be doing some interior work in the storage center affixed to the Home Depot on Forest. The tree company has not been identified; its trucks were unmarked. A banner on Forest says a CubeSmart self-storage facility is coming soon, but a spokesman for the Pennsylvania-based company said they're only managing it and "the property owner did not consult with or advise CubeSmart of the recent tree pruning at this construction site in Dallas."
Arborist Steve Houser, former chair of the city's Urban Forest Advisory Committee, guesstimates a fine could be in the six figures. But he and city officials are working to determine the extent of the damage. The tree ordinance, which for years has been in desperate need of strengthening, prohibits "excessively pruning or topping a tree," but as Houser pointed out when we spoke this week, it's unclear whether the trees will survive the butchering.
CubeSmart says it had nothing to do with the tree "pruning." OK, but what about this says "pruning"?
(Robert Wilonsky/Staff)
One thing, though, is clear: The cutting "weakened the structural integrity of the trees — permanent, irreparably," Houser said. "It's devastating. If the city allows this group to get away with topping the trees, everyone will do it." 
The pictures that started circulating on social media last week really don't do it justice, either. The gut-punch comes when you see the devastation in person; from any angle it's a horror show. I've been out there three times in the last five days, and every single time someone pulls over, gets out and stops to take a few photos because they can't believe it either.
"Because it's shocking — totally shocking," said northwest Dallas' City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates, who swung by last week after getting countless complaints from constituents. She had her almost-4-year-old grandson with her. He was old enough to be appalled.
"He kept saying, 'What happened to those trees, what happened to those trees?'" Gates said Wednesday. "And 10 minutes later he brought it up again, because it's such a horrific sight! He said, 'Trees are good.'"
Which any almost-4-year-old knows. I cannot vouch for 59-year-old Gov. Greg Abbott.
A couple of days back, when he called for a special session in July, the governor piled almost two dozen things onto the Legislature's to-do list . Most you saw coming, like the bathroom bill, because Abbott's afraid of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Dan Patrick's afraid of transgender Texans. But just past "property tax reform" on that laundry list is this spiteful get-'er-done: "Preventing cities from regulating what property owners do with trees on private land." 
Another look at what's left of the live oaks along Forest Lane near Josey in northwest Dallas
(Robert Wilonsky/Staff)
Republican legislators see this as a private-property rights issue: You can do whatever you please on whatever you own, and that's that . Far as they're concerned, cities like Dallas that tell developers and property owners they can't chop down trees unless they pay into a reforestation fund hate the economy and freedom. In a tweet Thursday, Abbott said he's out to " end cities' assault[s] on individual liberty ." 
The end result would be devastating for a city like Dallas, which, according to the nonprofit Texas Trees Foundation, is one of the fastest-warming cities in the country because of sprawl and development burying soil beneath concrete. Dallas and the surrounding counties have been in violation of the Clean Air Act for decades ; study after study shows that when trees vanish, temperatures rise . The first-of-its-kind study of Dallas' urban forest actually put a number on how much all of this is worth: " Trees provide annual savings of over $9 million through energy conservation ," for starters.
At this very moment, Dallas is in the midst of rewriting its tree ordinance. In fact, on Thursday the City Plan Commission held yet another hearing on the Article X do-over that's been in the works for years. Among the items under consideration is giving builders "tree credits" if their developments are sustainable and environmentally sound.
But should Abbott get his way, all this will be for nothing. And property owners will think nothing of butchering 100 trees, because it will be their God-given, flag-waving, world-burning right to do so.
"And that's a crying shame," said Houser. "The public should be outraged. This is just as much an environmental issue as it is an economic issue. Trees clean your water and soil. Growing our economy is important, but what good is it when you can't breathe?"
Yeah, but freedom!