Quote:
Originally Posted by _Matt
I realize you guys are speaking more generally about the canopy, but I don't know how applicable it is to this site. It appears to have been clear-cut at some point in the past, a very unfortunate treatment of the land. I used to help my grandfather clear land at his cattle ranch. We would take down cedar trees and destroy them like weeds. Oaks in the pasture were never touched and sometimes even cleaned up.
The adjacent neighborhoods have many more trees.
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Many of those cedars that ranchers (at least those in Central Texas) clear out are invasive (i.e., not native to the region). They're also incredibly thirsty and deplete the water that would be otherwise helpful to native trees and plants. It's actually good to clear those out because they spread like weeds, too, and can kill off many native plants by essentially choking them. I've got a lot of family in the Hill Country and have helped on ranches all my life in clearing that crap out - I feel your pain, literally! Don't forget your gloves, haha (I've made that mistake before as a kid...no sympathy from my family - lesson learned after only one time and many blisters).
That said, I agree that one of the greatest things about Austin is that it's a city often in concert with beautiful, natural surroundings. It was certainly a blessing that many freeways were cancelled years ago, even if we suffer the traffic nightmare today - imagine the mindless development in and around Central Austin if we had all those freeways? Not to mention, we have one of the most beautiful city cores because these things kept it unique not only from a neighborhood perspective but also from an environmental one. Clear-cutting land and planting stick-trees is not only an eyesore but harmful to the land in the long run. The dense canopy in Central Austin is absolutely something worth protecting.