More details about the protest walk on Montrose Blvd today 10/1 at 2pm  can be found at www.SaveMontroseLiveOaks.com  Please be sure to read the section on “What to Bring and Know”

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Joint statement from Dr. Georgia Hitchcock and Jonna Hitchcock (authors of the petition to Save Montrose Live Oaks):

We want the city and the Montrose TIRZ to immediately put a pause on this project, until there is time for true public input and an honest effort at redesigning around the trees.  We also want to know how they plan to keep all their newly planted replacement trees alive without irrigation.

As you can plainly see, Houstonians became outraged when they finally learned about this project and the impact it will have to Montrose trees.  You will see that today by the people who come out to the boulevard in the Houston heat to stand up for trees and make their voices heard, and you have seen that from the ~4000 people who have signed the Save Montrose Live Oaks petition in just over a week.

After TIRZ began to feel some pressure, they released a statement that includes a reassurance that they will try to save the “healthy, mature live oak trees.”  But then we learned just how many of these trees they consider unhealthy!  Dozens of live oaks and other mature trees will come down just because they are “constrained by the sidewalks” around them, or because they’ve been trimmed around the utility lines. These trees are not unhealthy, they’ve thrived for decades under the utility lines and in the sidewalks.  When the utility lines are buried as part of this project, the middle of trimmed trees will grow back.  There is no reason to preemptively cut those trees down.  But of course, when you’re paying the bill, it is difficult to get an independent arborist who will push back on your plans. 

And even in their most recent statement, TIRZ confirmed that they still plan to take down 57 trees between Allen Parkway and Clay which is more than 90% of the trees in that small stretch.

There is still no count on how many will be cut down as they continue the rest of the way down Montrose Blvd to US 59.  But if the Phase 1 sidewalk design and its impact on trees continues in Phases 2 and 3, there will be hundreds of trees cut down including many mature Live Oaks.

Live oaks are survivors in Houston. They made it through the heat and drought this summer when many trees did not.  Live oaks are a unique species in terms of the impact they have on our average temperature, floodwater runoff and pulling carbon and other pollutants out of our air.

Newly planted trees with no irrigation systems will NOT survive our new climate reality.   The live oaks have, and if we leave them alone they will continue to help us.

We just hope these majestic old live oaks can survive the ugly politics of a TIRZ development.

All over the city, the appointed TIRZ boards, who most Houstonians know nothing about, are spending taxpayer dollars on projects which are decimating our tree canopy.  In this day of climate change, it is indefensible to do this kind of concrete-intense, tree-killing urban development.