HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-417 (3)
CityClerk
From:Sarah Paschal <scwiebe@uark.edu>
Sent:Tuesday, September 17, 2024 2:38 PM
To:Agenda Item Comment
Subject:Fayetteville High Post Oaks
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Hello there, my name is Sarah Paschal and I am a horticulturist in Fayetteville. I also am a Fayetteville
High School graduate, a Fayetteville local, a lover of my funky town, and very passionate about the
environment and the ecological impact we have as humans that get to live in our home that we call
Earth.
I would like to share a short story with you.
I have lived in this town my entire life. Fayetteville is very near and dear to me. To get to work each day, I
drive north down Garland. The new greenway trail was put in near agri park. Great! I love that Fayetteville
is expanding the local trail system and making walking, biking, running safer and more accessible.
However, I noticed that the old, beautiful Oak trees that were planted (probably 70+ years ago) on the
east side of the ditch on garland at Agri park were struggling. Over the next two years I watched them
succumb to their new, introduced environment. Tree after tree, they eventually were all cut down. I never
thought I knew how much trees meant to me until I saw them being chopped up and put through a
chipper to be mulch on the ground somewhere. Something that once stood so tall and mighty, lost so
fast due to humanity. I asked my husband one day last October after a hard day at work if we could go sit
on the stumps that once were these mighty oaks. I sat there on a stump on a side of the road on Garland
Ave as tears streamed down my face. He thought I was totally insane.
And maybe I was.
But my point is, something that someone might hold so close to their heart and not even know it might be
just something so silly in another persons mind.
Sure, Fayetteville is expanding. Sure, cars will always need a place to go. But maybe, just maybe, we as a
community can see the importance to the ecosystem, to the teacher that looks out of their window every
day to see the oaks, to the animals that rely on the acorns, to the person who sits under the trees and
feels the sun on their face, and to the girl who passes by and doesn't realize how big of a loss it would be
to see asphalt and suburbans rather than 100+ year old Oaks right in the middle of town.
Please leave the trees.
Ps. Why didn't FHS build a parking garage? Just a question...
-Sarah
Sarah Paschal
MS Horticulture Student
University of Arkansas
(479)871-1629
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