Leave Our Trees Alone!
The rumors have been flying around the neighborhood about the pending demise of the trees in our park. Apparently it's finally supposed to happen. Yesterday I received this letter from the LCRA. Actually, I received two identical letters -- in one they misspelled my first name and in the other my last name.
It seems that LCRA has gotten tired of trimming the trees that are in its transmission lines' right-of-way and plans to chop them down. Having seen the scorched earth approach they've taken when they did this sort of thing in the Wallnut Creek Park (imagine the path of destruction left by a 100 yard wide category 5 tornado and you get the idea) I'm dreading what's in store.
Northwest District Park a.k.a. Gracy Woods Park is a lovely oasis in our neighborhood and one of the reasons why I bought my house here. The dog-walking neighbors get together about twice a year and trim the lower branches of the trees and clear away dead wood. The city hauls it away, but most of the work falls on us.
A big portion of the park is in LCRA's right of way and yes, there are some fast growing trees underneath the transmission lines that need to be trimmed every couple of years. There are also full grown live oaks that don't really change in size very much. I'm curious to see what exactly they have planned and into how much detail they'll go at the meeting.
This Sunday afternoon there'll be a gathering in the park and we're trying to get some media and city councel members out there. We're trying to change LCRA's mind about chopping down our trees. We'd like for them to raise their powerlines (supposedly they are lower than regulation height) and/or to first plant and establish shade trees outside their ROW before cutting down any of the offending trees.
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You need to put feelers out to environmental lawyers who should immediately get an injunction on any further action until the situation is resolved and also check and make sure the lines are below regulation and then sue whomever needs to be sued to get that fixed. Once you are safe from the Big Bad Wolf chopping the trees down right away, you can communicate with the BBW and advise him of your campaign. If they know you'll put up a fight but are willing to compromise then they may see it's not worth the headache to do this without you on board.
Tell all of your friends,not just the ones who live in the area to show up to the event you are staging. Put out a press release to all TV/News and radio orgs of what you are doing. Choose a spokesperson for the group and have an agenda or goals for the event so that the press can see you are an organized unit. Perhaps choose a few people to speak to the press and make sure EVERYBODY has a list of bullet points you want to get across.
I think my old HS beau lives in Austin still and he used to work in the radio and newspaper industry. Call him and ask him if he knows anybody in Austin in the biz and would he implore them on your behalf. I may know a writer who may be able to do something.
Don't be afraid to contact Tex Monthly either. This sort "I fought the law" thing sells magazines too!
Good luck.
This whole LCRA process has been going off and on for quite some time. We've been in contact with the city, but personally I don't really know what all the details are.
Luckily some of the neighbors work for TV (Ilona) and radio (David) so we do have media connections. I'm planning to shoot some pictures at the meeting on Sunday and try to contact media outlets that won't make it to the gathering.