{"id":6907,"date":"2019-03-21T12:29:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T17:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=6907"},"modified":"2019-04-03T11:09:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T16:09:14","slug":"beautiful-oaks-doomed-on-memorial-park-golf-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=6907","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful Oaks Doomed on Memorial Park Golf Course?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are Big Trees Part of Massive Tree Felling Project in Public Park?<\/h3>\n

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March 21, 2019<\/p>\n

Updated March 24 and 28, 2019<\/p>\n

Updated April 3, 2019: The trees are to be saved. The Parks Department finally responded with an email Wednesday morning, April 3. “In response to your question, the fencing is to protect the trees and not cut them down,” wrote Estella Espinosa, communications manager for the Houston Parks and Recreation Department.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Strolling along Memorial Drive past the fence obscuring the secret remodel of the public golf course<\/a> in Houston’s Memorial Park<\/a>, we noticed these lovely old oaks tagged with ties and surrounded by plastic fencing. We were alarmed. Hundreds of other trees, including mature oaks and pines, are marked for felling with plastic ribbons all over the 1500-acre park, which has already lost innumerable trees as the $200-300 million Master Plan<\/a> is bulldozed into place. But these trees were on the golf course. Could it be they were marked for preservation? Other trees already have been felled as part of the controversial $13.5 million “upgrade” of the popular course into a PGA Tour tournament-level course.<\/p>\n

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Oaks marked for preservation or removal on golf course being remodeled in Houston’s Memorial Park? Photo March 18, 2019<\/p><\/div>\n

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Hundreds of trees all over the 1500-acre semi-forested park already have been felled or marked for removal as part of major landscaping plan. Photo March 18, 2019<\/p><\/div>\n

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Waiting for An Answer<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’ve contacted the Memorial Park Conservancy<\/a>, the private nonprofit that raises funds and manages the park for the benefit of the people of Houston. We’ll have an answer soon, we hope.<\/p>\n

Update: Representatives of the Conservancy have responded that the renovation of the golf course for PGA Tour tournaments is the responsibility of the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department and that we should ask HPARD about the trees. So we sent an email about the trees to HPARD Director Steve Wright late on Thursday, March 21, and we are waiting for a reply.<\/p>\n

Update March 28: Still no word from the Houston Parks Department. Looking like the trees are doomed.<\/p>\n

SC<\/p>\n

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Are Big Trees Part of Massive Tree Felling Project in Public Park?   March 21, 2019 Updated March 24 and 28, 2019 Updated April 3, 2019: The trees are to be saved. The Parks Department finally responded with an email Wednesday morning, April 3. “In response to your question, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6907"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6976,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6907\/revisions\/6976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}