Dallas needs to revise rules that let century-old live oaks be hacked down for development

St. Matthew’s Episcopal had to sell part of its property to ensure the church’s future. What happened next is hard to look at.

These were trees older than the historic church itself, which relocated here almost 100 years ago. Trees too big to encircle with a hug. Trees that were part of the already-too-scarce canopy of green so vital to saving our fragile air. The same reality that has hobbled so many places of worship — an aging congregation and financial challenges at a time when expanded services are desperately needed — led St. Matthew’s to a three-year analysis into how best to keep the church’s doors open and safeguard its future.

The cost was the sacrifice of the church’s beloved tree-canopied greenspace, where neighbors walked their dogs and St. Matthew’s occasionally conducted outdoor services or set up its autumn pumpkin patch. Enzler said Crow Residential worked with City Hall to get the necessary approval for the removal, replacement and mediation of the trees.

It will be a long time before any new trees can adequately replace the good that the old-growth live oaks did: Absorbing tons of airborne pollutants and mitigating surrounding heat islands, those expanses of concrete that trap hot air in the summer. But are they the right rules? Yes, we need more housing in Dallas, but at what expense — especially when it comes at the risk of our environment and our health?

How about if the City Council ensures this epitaph for those destroyed live oaks: Stricter rules that give trees more of a fighting chance? City regulations require that any protected tree be replaced on an inch-per-inch basis. For instance, removing a 10-inch diameter tree requires planting one or more new ones that add up to the same 10 inches.

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