2008 Woodie Awards
Removing trees from De Anza bad for students, wildlife on campus
Hao Guo, De Anza student
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: Letters to the editor
Last summer, I noticed the now-barren landscape of De Anza College's L Quad, S Quad, and even some areas in A Quad that were once shady and covered with trees and shrubs. These trees that are cut down in the L Quad and S Quad provided shades to the students sitting on the bench as well as the passersby. Now there are far fewer people sitting on the benches or standing around. The few people who dare to study under the trees have to wear sunglasses.
This operation could mean bad news for many animals living in these small and scattering niches. Birds are nowhere near to be found; squirrels only occasionally pass by this uncovered area with ever more caution (although I don't suppose anyone wants to kill them). I suppose these newly planted saplings have many years to grow as stall as their predecessors.
And not surprisingly, at least five snails are dead on the spot where the strip of shrubs were by the palm trees in the A Quad. Their soft body have shriveled to almost nothing, all but remained is the empty shell that reminds us the once lively snails. These are evidently desiccated by prolonged sunlight, high temperatures and the dry season in the summer. They are the causalities in the master plan. I started to wonder when the population of snails in this narrow strip would recover once the shrubs are replaced by plants.
In addition to the replacement of trees, the plan also includes cutting down the wood trees while rescuing others. The question is: why did anyone plan them in the first place? And for the tree replacement, Eucalyptus is not local; these trees are from Australia. Crepe myrtle is native to the Indian subcontinent. I wonder if the goal of environmental sustainability by using trees that are native here applies to this plan as Jones-Dulin claimed.
This operation could mean bad news for many animals living in these small and scattering niches. Birds are nowhere near to be found; squirrels only occasionally pass by this uncovered area with ever more caution (although I don't suppose anyone wants to kill them). I suppose these newly planted saplings have many years to grow as stall as their predecessors.
And not surprisingly, at least five snails are dead on the spot where the strip of shrubs were by the palm trees in the A Quad. Their soft body have shriveled to almost nothing, all but remained is the empty shell that reminds us the once lively snails. These are evidently desiccated by prolonged sunlight, high temperatures and the dry season in the summer. They are the causalities in the master plan. I started to wonder when the population of snails in this narrow strip would recover once the shrubs are replaced by plants.
In addition to the replacement of trees, the plan also includes cutting down the wood trees while rescuing others. The question is: why did anyone plan them in the first place? And for the tree replacement, Eucalyptus is not local; these trees are from Australia. Crepe myrtle is native to the Indian subcontinent. I wonder if the goal of environmental sustainability by using trees that are native here applies to this plan as Jones-Dulin claimed.
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