Dogwood Trail

Serving as the western border of the Central Corridor Garden is a wonderful example of an upland forest rim ecosystem. Through this wooded area is the Dogwood Trail, a meandering path transversing the natural forest. While serving as a wonderful natural habitat for numerous flowering dogwood trees, the forest also is home to many native Alabama species that have significant historical, economic, cultural or aesthetic value to our state. The Alabama Native Tree Project was sponsored by the local Mountain Lakes Chapter of the Society of American Foresters.

Just to the east of the southern terminus of the Dogwood Trail stands the majestic one hundred year-old dogwood tree which was transplanted to the Garden. On March 27, 1995, a local citizen called the Mayor's office of the City of Huntsville with a complaint. She wanted to know why the City was not going to try and save the beautiful flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) from the path of bulldozers as they were widening an existing roadway. The Mayor gave her a very candid answer - he did not know why and he would look into this matter. Mayor Hettinger asked the City Arborist, Chuck Weber, to investigate the situation. Weber visited the construction site and indeed found a magnificent dogwood standing 25 feet tall with a wingspan of 45 feet about to burst into full bloom. Also, he saw the bulldozers from the construction crew about to make firewood of this beautiful tree. Immediately three problems were apparent - 1) the road construction was a State of Alabama project, not City of Huntsville; 2)the time to act was very short; 3) the City did not have equipment or expertise to successfully handle relocation. Weber reported back to the Mayor and called the Huntsville Botanical Garden for a second opinion. The Garden concurred with Weber that relocation would require outside consultation and expertise. Weber recommended that the Mayor bring in a consulting arborist from Tennessee who had vast experience in the process of moving such a tree. Steve Clark of Brentwood, TN, agreed to visit the site and develop the moving process if deemed feasible. Clark's arrival on site found the tree in full bloom and he was impressed with the beauty and grace of this old dogwood. He stated that the tree was worthy of saving, that it could be moved successfully (90-95% chance), and that the cost might be up to $30,000 depending upon the level of local cooperation. With this report, the Mayor chose to proceed.

As consulting arborist and project manager, Clark began to lay out the resources needed to undertake the move. He contracted with Environmental Design of Houston, Texas, to do the actual transplanting. Environmental Design has expertise in the field of transplanting large trees and Clark had worked with them in the past. The Tree Commission and the division of Landscape Management of the City of Huntsville developed a plan to raise money through the elementary schools to pay for Clark's and Enviriomental Design's fees. Flyers were distributed to every classroom in K-5th grade. The City of Huntsville persuaded the State of Alabama to allow some time to move the tree and thirty days was granted. The week of May 10-13 was chosen as the target. This fit into the schedule of Environmental Design and also allowed the tree time to finish flowering and to harden off the new foliage. Additional resources needed to complete the move, including dump trucks, track hoes, a crane, a house moving trailer, bucket trucks, and a gas-line tunneler were assembled. As the children gathered their coins in each classroom, Clark and Weber developed the plan of action which had to be implemented in a very short window of opportunity.

As May 10 arrived, a meeting was called for all of the players to meet and plan the following two days. Clark outlined the process and made sure everyone understood the plan. To make matters worse, severe storms were predicted for the following day. In view of this, heavy equipment was immediately sent to the site to remove topsoil from the area for use at the new site and to cover the area around the tree to keep it as dry as possible. The following day, moving began. The dogwood's arching branches, which added so much architecturally, were pulled up off the ground with rigging. Next, a trackhoe began removing soil outside of the drip line to a depth of four feet. When completed, this created an island on which the tree was still resting. The digging crew then shaped the root ball by hand and wrapped the prepared ball with burlap and hog wire. Next four inch steel pipe was driven under the root ball with a pneumatic gas line mole - very carefully in order that they did not destroy the root ball. The pipes were necessary to take the weight off of the root ball when lifting with the crane. After all the pipes were in place, a steel cable was placed under the pipes and pulled across the root ball to slice the roots below the pipes. Cables were attached to the steel pipes and hooked to an eighty ton crane. The crane lifted the tree quite easily and placed it onto the bed of a house moving trailer. The height from the road bed was critical at this juncture for there were numerous traffic lights and power lines to cross on the five mile trek to the Botanical Garden. At twenty-six feet, the load was too tall for most wires. The Transportation Department was able to push up most of the traffic wires without having to disconnect them at each pole. With a police escort the tree set off on its journey at a speed of three miles per hour.

At the Garden, an appropriate site had been selected for planting, one where it would be seen by all visitors. Also, to be sensitive to the cultural needs of the tree the dogwood was planted literally on top of the ground with topsoil from the original site around the root ball. This insured adequate drainage in Huntsville's clayey soils. Wood chips mulched the whole root zone area out to the drip line and a drip irrigation system was installed. This whole process from initial digging of the root ball to final mulching took thirty hours.

Since the tree was moved on May 13, it was necessary to be very sensitive to the moisture requirements of the newly transplanted tree. Placing a mist system in the tree to syringe the foliage intermittently was considered, but rejected because of the fungal leaf problems associated with dogwoods. As an afterthought, two soil moisture meters were added to monitor the root zone. This proved to be the smartest thing done in taking care of the tree. The ensuing summer proved to be the hottest and driest in many years. No doubt the tree would have been drowned if the soil tensiometers had not been present to accurately tell the moisture of the root zone. Due to the mulch layer and shading of the root zone by the canopy, no additional water was added after the initial planting throughout the summer. New growth initiated in June and a heavy bud set was initiated in September. The winter of 1995-96 was one of the coldest in years but the tree was not affected. Easter week of 1996 brought out the blossoms and the whole community trekked to the Garden to see the tree which was saved from the bulldozers.