Campus Pruning At Tennessee Tech Described As ‘War On Trees’

The Tennessee Tech mascot Awesome Eagle climbed into an old tree with arborist Scott Winningham for a photo shoot. Credit: TTU Photo Services

They’re calling it the “War on Trees” at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, according to a school spokesperson. Chainsaws are revving this summer, pruning century-old hardwoods and chopping down others altogether. The campus arborist has been forced to defend his strategy in order to smooth things over on campus.

When a handful of trees were felled by the Bryan Fine Arts building, Scott Winningham was made out to be a villain. He says the trees were originally planted too close together, but he now acknowledges he should have given professors some heads up that trees were coming down.

The university has since issued a statement explaining Winningham’s end goal, which is to save as many trees as possible, including 18 that pre-date the university’s start in 1915.

“We had to take out some trees, I’m going to be honest, and there are several more on campus that need to be taken down. They’re dying. And once a tree starts to die, a lot of times there is no way to revive it, especially if it’s due to something that’s called root decline.”

Winningham says a particular problem on campus is soil compaction, which happens when the ground gets inadvertently trampled by students, stressing root systems.

Tennessee Tech has 1,700 trees on campus. The university director of horticulture says he plans to plant five trees for every one that’s removed in hopes of boosting the campus tree count to 6,000 over time.