new member John Seiler

[jseiler]

Hi everyone,

My name is John Seiler and I am a Professor of Forest Biology in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech. Neil Pederson told me about your group. We have on our campus a 15 acre remnant of old growth white oak. There are 56 trees over 36 inches and 5 over 50 inches. We have conformed ages over 300 years for several with a more thorough investigation planned. The stand dstructure is very much that of an old growth stand. The Atheletic Department is planning the building of a new indoor football practice facility that will detroy at least 5 acres of this stand. We have been fighting to save these trees and have won a few battles. At this point the university has delayed any action until June 1, 2012 when a committee will report on findings concerning the uniqueness of the stand and the impact of moving the football facility to another location. There is an on-line petition you can sign at:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/vtstadiumwoods/
Please consider signing it, writing a testimony or sending me e-mails that might help our cause. Statements from "experts" concerning the uniqueness of this area are particularly needed. My e-mail is jseiler@vt.edu. Thanks and spread the word.

[dbhguru]

NTS,

I just signed John's partition and urge all my lady and fellow Ents to do likewise. This is a very worthy cause.

Bob

[PAwildernessadvocate]

See if you can get a high-profile Virginia Tech athlete like Michael Vick enlisted into your cause. I imagine Vick speaking out on the issue would make an impression on the VT athletic department.

[Larry Tucei]

John, Welcome to NTS, I signed your petition. Bob I agree with you trees such as these should be protected. North America has many White Oaks in the 50-100 year old range but very few in the 100-500 year. I imagine before Europeans 300 year old White Oaks were as common as sparrows. Larry

[edfrank]

John,

I read you post here and a copy of your earlier email to Neil about the woods. It sounds like a special place that deserves to be protected. I really don't know what I can do for you besides sign your petition. Neil pointed out some examples of other old white oak forests an I really can't identify any others. It is indeed an extremely rare situation where that many old and large oak trees are present in such a small area.

There was a similar situation at a Seton Hall prep school: Old Growth Forest Survey - New Jersey Chapter - Sierra Club http://cs.infospace.com/ClickHandler.as ... CDD1D37C0F

Here is another link: http://ramapolookout.blogspot.com/2011/ ... uture.html
This situation is almost exactly parallel to the situation with that of Stadium Woods (Be sure to always call it by name as it makes it something other than an anonymous patch of inconsequential woods.) You could try a contact the people listed in the above articles and see if they have advise as to what worked and what did not. Try not to alienate the proponents of building the stadium because once people get their back up about something they are no longer amenable to rational discussion and will refuse to change their opinion no matter what arguments or facts are presented. If there is something specific I can help you with,or if you want to discuss something, feel free to email me.

Ed Frank

[eliahd24]

I can't even imagine why protection isn't automatic! I, too, have signed the petition and hope for the best.