Apex Energy-SouthernDevelopment-McDonough v Quercus

tree lined street
Garrett Street in Charlottesville, between Ridge Street and Avon, has excellent “green infrastructure”. It is a canopy street. Trees provide shade and shelter, and lower temperatures in the summer.

green city ideology
In 2006 the Charlottesville City Council adopted a 2025 Vision. Item five of the eight point vision was “A Green City”

voting on street elements
The City adopted a plan in 2016 to guide the morphology of its streets. Citizens were involved in the development of the plan. People like canopy trees. Shade is a necessity in a southern city if you intend to walk in the summertime.

Plan 6010 student
The Garrett Street trees have been celebrated over the years.

In the last decade development pressure has focused on this corridor. But still, in the time of COVID-19, a number of the trees remain. (construction workers maintaining distance).

Garret Street stumps
This past week, seven Garrett Street corridor Pin Oaks were dispatched. 10-15,000 square feet of shade gone. Over a million leaves, gone. Carbon sequestration gone.
Apex Energy is building an eight storey energy efficient structure to the south of the stumps . The landscape plan for Apex’s new corporate headquarters shows these noble oaks being replaced by pagoda dogwoods, a flowering plant, a small deciduous shrub that grows to twenty feet, with a trunk up to six inches in diameter. Token trees.

The proposed plantings will not provide the environmental services that these trees brought to our City. This canopy street destruction is deeply discouraging.

screenshot from search for 2025 vision
According to talk on the street, the Apex building is being designed by William McDonough + Partners, two thoughtful companies…
Sometimes green is not green.

smoke and fog

Then.

2013 Dogwood Festival
Seven years ago, Charlottesville's Dogwood Festival Parade. People watch motorcyclists spin their rear tires with front tires locked. Burnout! Particulates. Rubber stench. Fun!

Now
Riverview Park. Solitary man. Morning fog.
Three days ago. Man alone. In the fog. In the morning. Next to the river. Birds sing. Air is sweet. A new day to make things right.

gravestone love note

gravestone on the side of Monticello Mountain
{2:4} He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me [was] love. {2:5} Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I [am] sick of love. {2:6} His left hand [is] under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. {2:7} I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake [my] love, till he please.
{2:8} The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. {2:9} My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. {2:10} My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. {2:11} For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over [and] gone; {2:12} The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; {2:13} The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines [with] the tender grape give a [good] smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
{2:14} O my dove, [that art] in the clefts of the rock, in the secret [places] of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet [is] thy voice, and thy countenance [is] comely. {2:15} Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines [have] tender grapes.–KJV

Out biking yesterday, came across this stone.

Carlton Views

phase IV
Work continues on multiple fronts on the Carlton Avenue PUD in East Belmont Carlton on the old 4.855 acre HT Ferron site. When complete the site will have a total of 154 affordable units. The development is happening in phases.
PACE
Phase 1 was the PACE center. Medical care, dental, medications, transportation, physical therapy, and social support. All-inclusive care that helps loved ones stay independent and in their own home. All-inclusive Healthcare. Currently they are closed.
Phase II was Carlton Views I. 48 Units I think. All affordable, all leased up…
Phase III, Carlton Views II is currently under construction.
Not sure regarding how many units. 48? 54? Will check. All affordable…
Phase IV, Carlton Views III will sit on the eastern-most edge of the lot. This piece of concrete is currently being busted up and removed to make way for the 3rd building of 48/54? affordable units. Will check
xxxxxxx. Place holder here. The quality of “open space” provided to residents remains to be seen.

Castanea dentata

Castanea dentata seedling
Fortunately, there are not too many parallels between COVID19 and the American Chestnut blight. But in common there is awareness and awakening. Minimize death, be careful. The awakening part… Have you planted a tree during this life? What are you waiting for? It is a rehabilitative and blessed thing to do. Plant. Now. #growingtowardthelight
large dead chestnut tree
The Family of James and Caroline Shelton pose by a large dead American chestnut tree in Tremont Falls, Tennessee, circa 1920. Courtesy of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Library

Greatest forest loss in history

The American chestnut is an historic and beloved part of America’s landscape. Its extinction would be the loss of a symbol of American strength, endurance and resourcefulness. Saving the chestnut and restoring it to its native range at scale could also help give other endangered tree species a new lease on life and directly offset the effects of climate change and deforestation. While no single intervention can completely eradicate chestnut blight, together the science of breeding, biotechnology, and biocontrol (3BUR) offer our best hope for rescuing the American chestnut tree.—The American Chestnut Foundation