Draper pushing tree preservation

DRAPER — The Draper Tree Commission's Historical Tree Committee is concerned about the health of the city's oldest trees — especially in this time of drought — and is seeking help from residents.

According to Tree Committee member Jane Jefferies, Draper's early residents homesteaded an area devoid of large trees. They found only willow shrubs lining meandering streams, and in the springtime cattail swamps rang with cries of red-winged blackbirds. As the human residents settled here, they built roads, dug irrigation ditches and planted trees.

She said remnants of these first trees of Draper still stand. Sycamores grow near the historical homes on Fort Street. A row of black locusts stands sturdily along the west side of 1300 East. One of the original black locust fence posts remains embedded at an angle near where Fort Street runs past the mouth of Tripp Lane. There is at least one lightning-battered cottonwood in Draper's largest parks on 1300 East.

Two magnificent cottonwood trees grow in the front yard of a home south of Draper Historical Park. One huge cottonwood survives across from Bruce Ballard's home on the corner of Fort Street and 12800 South. The three giants of Fort Street, maimed and mutilated to prevent their interference with power lines, stand rooted along a dry ditch beside a sheep pasture.

"This brings us to the problem." Jefferies reported in an e-mail to the media. "Formerly, drinking deeply from ditches during water turns, these pioneer trees have been cut off from their main source of water. Draper's irrigation water was taken from the ditches and put into a pressurized irrigation system in 1994-95.

She said that with insufficient water, the feeble flow of sap throughout the summer's hottest months fails to reach one limb after another.

"Before these trees are all gone, the Draper Tree Commission's Historical Tree Committee would like to collect their stories and perhaps give them another lease on life," she said.

The Tree Committee has a two-fold request for Draper residents:

1. Help any pioneer tree still clinging to life. If you own one of these dying giants, allow a stream of water from a hose to penetrate deeply into the soil along the tree's drip line at ten-day intervals during the hottest days of summer.

2. Help the committee chronicle the historically significant trees of Draper. Choose one of these remarkable trees and discover its history. Many of these trees could become Utah heritage trees, and be listed on the Utah Tree Registry.

• Information on pioneer trees in Draper should address what kind of tree is it, its location, circumference of trunk 4 1/2 feet above ground and a story or other information about the tree.

Mail or deliver your response to Draper City Hall, Attention Draper Tree Commission, 1020 E. Pioneer Road, Draper, UT 84020, or e-mail deoxyribose@juno.com.