April 10, 2003
Contact: Bill Yarwood (509-963-1120/fax 509-963-3301/e-mail: yarwoodb@cwu.edu)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - As part of Central Washington
University’s Kamola Hall renovation project, a comprehensive
landscaping plan will soon begin on site, including the necessary
removal and replacement of 18 trees, on both the 9th Avenue and E
Street malls.
“These chestnut trees are about 90 years old and are
currently in poor health,” Paul Stricker, the project architect with
Kovalenko Hale, says. “They’ve lived out their useful lives. Many
have been filled with concrete in order to keep them from cracking and
falling over.”
As part of an on-going campus tree study, Leslie Wing,
university tree expert, looked at these trees and determined they would
not live another 15 years, according to Greg Poe, manager of CWU
custodial and grounds services.
They will be replaced with red maples that will not only be
attractive, but durable too.
“They’re better suited for both of these areas and the
environment they’ll be put in,” Poe says.
Two large oaks will also be removed.
“They’re up against and have overgrown the building
(Kamola),” Stricker points out. “They’ll also be replaced with smaller
red maples.”
No trees along 8th Avenue will be affected, and the existing
flowering dogwood trees will remain, according to Stricker. The
first of the tree removals will begin April 12.
The tree replacement project is the first step in a
rejuvenation of the center of campus and will be combined with the
replacement of existing light poles with period-type light fixtures,
setting the style for future improvements at Sue Lombard and the 9th
Avenue mall.
“This is a plan for the next 15 years,” Stricker says, “and I
think people are really going to like it.”
