Education and trees are two of our favorite, most worthy investments. Normally, they go nicely together – a lovely variety of hardy, Southwest-appropriate, healthy trees on school campuses.
Fifty new trees are planned for Durango School District 9-R’s construction projects with the Miller Middle School rebuild and Impact Career Innovation Center at Durango High School. But some community members would like to see more, considering the scale of these projects. Particularly, tree islands in parking lots and along public right-of-way perimeters.
We’d like to hear conversations about the possibility of more trees on school campuses, while addressing 9-R’s top concerns, namely safety, then water. It’s a classic case of competing priorities between 9-R, and avid tree planters and protectors.
Karla Sluis, 9-R spokesperson, said: “Trees can present school hazards the public might not think about. Our safety concern is planting new trees near entrances and parking lots that could block security cameras or provide cover for intruders.
“District plans did not include trees within the asphalt for practical reasons, including: safety; snow removal; smooth traffic flow; maximizing parking availability for students, staff and families; and budget considerations. Beautifying parking lots is a lower priority.”
To be clear, the school district is not obligated to build to Durango’s landscape standards. Private developments do, and include Mercy Hospital, Walmart, Home Depot, La Plata County Fairgrounds and recently built hotels and subdivisions, such as Twin Buttes and Three Springs.
For Peter Schertz, trees on school campuses come out on the losing end. He’s pushed back on 9-R for more of them.
Schertz, recently retired owner of Maria’s Bookshop in Durango, loves to see trees grow. He’s spearheaded tree planting efforts at local schools with Hot Wings Maple, Accolade Elm and Bristlecone Pine. He shared images of trees that could use more care and attention.
“There’s an opportunity to leave a legacy in Durango,” he said. “Trees could be that legacy.“
There’s truth to that. Schertz plants a tree a year. He’s so passionate about the value of trees, he’s been known to plant a few in ideal locations, under the radar and cover of darkness, in case residents question whether trees were always in particular locations.
For Schertz, it’s never too late to plant trees, for example, at Needham Elementary School’s newly developed parking lot. In an email in October 2022, project manager Devon Merriman told Schertz there’s “no going back to the drawing board.”
Schertz took measurements and sees space for eight to 10 good-sized trees. “Planting in this island as well as along the perimeter of the parking lot (public right of way) likely would meet the minimum standards,” for Durango’s Land Use and Development for landscaping parking lots, he wrote in an email to Merriman in November 2022.
Again, 9-R doesn’t have to meet this standard. Schertz understands this but said it’s still attainable. He’d sure like trees contributing to our urban canopy. He also sees an obligation to voters who in November 2020, passed the 4A Bond initiative, infusing 9-R with more than $90 million in funding for capital projects and improvements.
Sluis said: “Adding trees to parking lots instead of in areas such as playgrounds does not improve our learning environment. It wouldn’t provide shade for our students, and we would not encourage them to hang out in the parking lot as this is unsafe. It may be aesthetically pleasing, but the costs – both fiscally and environmentally – outweigh the benefits.”
Water, of course, is always a concern. Take a look around. It’s easy to see new xeriscaping (some joke it’s zero-scaping) with rocks and drought-tolerant plants more common than trees.
Superintendent Dr. Karen Cheser said: “We don’t have water to spare. That’s why all our new trees are carefully planned by two landscape architects on our team.”
The district is working to align with Durango’s sustainability initiatives, which include reducing water usage – it’s one of the city’s largest users. New trees require frequent irrigation, especially when getting established.
Trees are usually an easy sell. We all know the benefits. They provide habitat for birds, insects and other species, reduce noise and water runoff into the Animas River. They improve air quality and lower greenhouse gas emissions, and, generally, enhance our lives with beauty and shade.
They’re mitigators, too, with deciduous trees on west sides effectively cooling buildings, if they shade windows and part of the roof.
Trees could significantly cool the urban heat island that will be the new DHS parking lot. Shaded surfaces may be 20 degrees to 45 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than peak temperatures of unshaded materials, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Much research, particularly out of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s School of Earth, Society & Environment, show green landscapes enhance learning with measurably better concentration, fewer impulsive behaviors and higher self-discipline.
But in our times, it’s difficult to compete with school safety concerns. This is a tough one, and we’ll look into it further.
Schertz is right about trees as a legacy. “When I plant a tree, I feel hope,” he said.
And that’s a beautiful thing.
