Lexington wants to plant more trees. So why are we letting KU cut them down?

There are many reasons to love living in Lexington. It’s beautiful, diverse, historic, and surrounded by pristine farmland that is home to the most famous horses in the world. One of the many contributing factors that makes Lexington a wonderful place to live and raise a family is our tree canopy.

In 2013, LFUCG contracted with Davey Resource Group to complete an urban tree canopy assessment (UTC) within the 85-square-mile Urban Service Area (the urban core comprising 30 percent of the county). That study found that our current tree canopy covers over 13,000 acres, or 25 percent of the land cover in Lexington’s Urban Service Area. While this was welcome news, our metro government leadership decided they were not satisfied with the results. LFUCG’s leadership wisely set a goal to achieve a 30 percent canopy. To reach this goal, Lexington needs just over 3,000 additional acres of trees. There are many organizations working in conjunction to achieve this goal. The Urban Forest Initiative within the University Of Kentucky College Of Agriculture, Food and Environment is working to promote and protect the urban tree canopy on the UK campus, in Lexington, and throughout the region. The late LFUCG council member Jake Gibbs co-founded Tree Lexington! whose primary mission is to spearhead the success of the existing urban forestry goals in Lexington and to pioneer new initiatives that will elevate the city’s tree canopy and unify the community over this shared value.

These organizations and others are all working to improve our tree canopy because there is empirical evidence that it improves our communities’ health, increases our homeowner’s value, helps with storm water management, improves water quality, and reduces our carbon footprint. That 2013 study found Lexington’s overall tree canopy currently provides almost $50 million in annual benefits to the Urban Service Area and the region.

So I ask if all these groups are working to increase our tree canopy and there is unequivocal scientific evidence that mature trees improve our communities’ quality of life, why is Kentucky Utilities unnecessarily clear-cutting trees in our neighborhoods? When asked, a KU spokesman respond by saying they are “working within the regulations.” Their real reason comes down to the almighty dollar. It’s cheaper to clear cut the trees instead of trimming them. This past July, KU clear cut dozens and dozens of trees in the Southpoint neighborhood regardless of their distance and threat to the power lines. They not only took out nearly every tree in the median, KU clear cut trees between the sidewalk and the road. Southpoint residents were devastated and had begged KU not to cut their trees. Those pleas fell on deaf ears. I would encourage you to take a drive down South Point Drive to see for yourself what KU did. This paper ran a story on July 21 detailing the destruction.

Several neighborhoods throughout our community, including ours, have worked within KU’s recommended guidelines when planting trees in the past. Our neighborhood had KU representatives involved in the planning and selection of the trees for our median on Lansdowne drive. Now we learn that Lansdowne Drive and our neighborhood is on the list. Some of those very trees that KU helped us to plant are in danger of being cut down because KU is “following regulations.”

We can all agree nobody wants to contribute to a situation that would cause additional power outages or worsen an ice storm. There IS middle ground in where we can trim trees, save our homeowners value, and increase our communities’ tree canopy. To the leaders of Kentucky Utilities, we ask you to please work with us and other neighborhoods to come to a reasonable accommodation. Listen to your neighbors, the LFUCG’s recent resolution condemning you for “extreme and unilateral tree removal practice,” and ask yourself what you would do if one of these lines ran through your personal backyard.

Chad R. Aull is the president of the Lansdowne Neighborhood Association.