Back in college, I worked for an engineering and surveying company that did a whole lot of work in the SW (Richmond/Sugarland) and W Houston (between Houston & Katy) suburbs, and we would have the crews go out and mark specific trees for saving, and sometimes even modify the land plans to accommodate particularly nice specimens, like 50 year old oaks or something.
Most of the time though, the existing land was covered in 20-30 year old scrub that had grown up in the interim since the land had been farmed. So it wasn’t a bunch of attractive trees or anything- just scraggly post oaks and other junk vegetation that mostly got in the way.
The main reason for removing all the vegetation was drainage though; in that part of Texas, drainage was a major consideration, since it’s very flat and very rainy compared to elsewhere.
AFAIK though, a bit further north in the Woodlands and Kingwood, they made special effort to save the pine trees though, likely because of the forested area, and “wood” motif in the names.
The developer might not but the landscape architect probably does. And one of the initial steps of developing the civil plans is a tree survey where all the trees on the lot are identified, sized and categorized by condition and whether or not to preserve them.
Whether or not the architect is worried about the indigenous nature of the tree is up to them. They might favor keeping a non-indigenous strong, attractive tree but get rid of something like a large indigenous willow with weak branches and weedy behavior.
My entire high school was moved 10 feet* at the time of construction, to give clearance for an existing river red gum, that the elementary school children used to climb and admire.
Then later somebody put a transportable classroom underneath its spreading branches, and it dropped one on it (more than a ton, and sized to match). (River Red Gums do that).
Happy memories.
*10 feet doesn’t give clearance for a River Red Gum, but /moving/ the school 10 feet gave /enough/ clearance.
The lot we had our home built on was wooded but all the trees towards the front of our 1/2 acre was cleared, but left 100 feet of woods in the back yard. The builder gave us a credit to use at the nursery to get whatever kinds of plants and trees we want. This includes a designer to help you out with placement, plus they plant them for you. Most people get a maple tree for the front, along with all the bushes and flowering plants. I think it was $1700 worth.
There are lots of non-indigenous trees in my area. I also own an 8 acre heavily wooded property with a log home that is in a forestry program. I have to get rid of the weedy trees which include black locust and osage orange trees. There are 3-4 others but I don’t recall the names at the moment. They compete with oaks for nutrients and block out the sun to keep other trees from growing, plus they keep popping up everywhere. If you cut one down it sprouts up again from the root system a distance from the one you cut down. The black locust does the same thing. It has these huge 2 inch thorns that are very sharp. Also Japanese Honeysuckle is considered invasive. Very hard to eradicate. People buy them for decoration. Another very invasive plant is bamboo. It will spread from the area you plant it and is almost impossible to get rid of.
The worse tree to have on your property is the weeping willow. The roots seek out water and will get into your sewer pipe and clog it up. You need to plant them far away from water and sewer lines.
After re-reading this, I feel like I should elaborate a bit more. The reason was drainage, in that the engineers and builders needed to contour the land substantially in order to get it to drain properly and where they wanted it to drain. Can’t do that if there’s a lot of trees on it, you know. And in Houston, drainage is a HUGE concern, unlike places like say… Dallas where I live now, where there’s generally enough natural contour and creeks to not require as much deliberate contouring and the like.
Each of our near neighbors has two big old oak trees, probably valley oaks. Out here the trees don’t have to be dying to drop huge branches. They aren’t able to deal well with summer water, so if surrounding lawns are being watered, they can suck up too much water and their branches get too heavy and break off.
We had one take out our back fence (and electric line). Another came down on the neighbor’s driveway. They were lucky. Their cars were out and their driveway gate had come unlatched and swung open. The gate would have been splinters.
There are gorgeous old oak trees at Libbey Bowl in Ojai (CA). They had to take a few out because they were in danger of dropping branches. People squawked, but it was better than a limb coming down in the middle of a concert…particularly during the Music Festival.
Decades ago my family stayed in Indianapolis with an old roommate of my mom’s from her single days – actually, in a suburb. Their house was newish (maybe 5 years old?) in the early 60s when we were there. It was quite a wooded neighborhood, and they said the developers only took out the trees that would be where the houses and hardscape would be and left the rest. Was this not true? Or was this done more in those days?
The trees based on my memory were mostly pine trees, but I could be mistaken.
They didn’t cut this tree down when they built the building.
Motel in King City, CA, with palm tree growing through the lobby roof.
The tree was there and already mature before the motel was built around it in the 1950’s. Alas, the tree was cut down just a few months ago because of safety and insurance reasons. Boo! Hiss!
Full article, with pic of the tree being cut down and scroll down for the above pic.
“… the leaves drying out and falling onto the nearby sidewalk is a safety hazard …”
My brother stopped to talk to a man who was sitting in a half-demolished car at a park near where he lives near Sydney, Australia. The man, who was just quietly sitting there, was alright, but he said – “5 minutes before that branch fell, my son was sitting in that seat”
So, not to diminish the hazard that trees represent in suburbia, but the USA is relatively scared of nature.
