Page 12 THE BATTALION
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1978
Shady future no longer
A&M protecting trees
While “only God can make a
tree,” grounds-keepers at Texas
A&M University have a hand in
preserving His work.
At Aggieland, that’s no small
chore. There are 7,859 trees, one-
half of them oaks, throughout the
890-acre core of the campus.
The trees blend into the academic
environment to provide boulevards,
canopies over walks, building
screens and shade for outdoor study
or leisure.
Aesthetically priceless, the trees
have a computable value making
them a multimillion dollar asset.
For example, one 24-inch diameter
live oak, in prime condition, has a
value of $4,523.90, according to
Eugene Ray, director of grounds
maintenance.
Construction projects, how
ever, have been the main cause
of tree damage or loss, specifi
cally street and sidewalk con
struction.
The value of a prime 24-inch
diameter live oak can be deter
mined by the “shade tree formula:”
the square of the diameter times
.7854, times $10 (24 x 24 x .7854 x
$10 $4,523.90).
“This University has always taken
great pride in its trees,” Ray said.
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“The majority of the mature trees
were planted 30 to 60 years ago,
primarily live oaks in a street tree
fashion.”
A recent inventory by the
Grounds Maintenance Department
showed 7,859 trees - 4,297 mature
and 3,562 planted since 1971. An
additional 370 trees will be planted
on the western portion of the cam
pus in the near future, Ray said.
The 890 acres surveyed are com
prised of the central campus area,
the 150-acre golf course that serves
as the front lawn for the southeast
side of the campus and the develop
ing portion of the campus across
Wellborn Road. It does not include
any of the 4,000 acres of research
farms or Hensel Park, a large, un
molested wooded recreation area
north of the University’s main stu
dent apartment complex.
Nature, machines and man have
affected some of the trees during the
past five years.
“We have lost some 60 mature
trees since 1973 and have approxi
mately 130 mature trees in some
state of weak growth,” Ray said.
Tree diseases, primarily oak de
cline, have caused some damage in
the park area around the president’s
home, Ray said. The persimmon
wilt fungus affects sycamore,
hackberry, persimmon and the vari
ous oak trees. It generally requires a
laboratory culture from the sus
pected tree to confirm the disease,
he said.
Thirteen post oaks have been lost
near the president’s and vice-
president’s homes, Ray said.
Six sycamore trees in various loca
tions have also been lost. Ray has
recommended that new syacamore
plantings be restricted to areas for
academic research only, since they
appear to succumb quickly to the
fungus.
Ray said a few of the pine trees
north of Zachry Engineering Center
were probably killed by traffic
exhaust pollution from University
Drive and South College Avenue,
one of the heavily used intersections
around the campus.
Aesthetically priceless, the
trees on the Texas Ai?M Univer
sity campus have a computable
value making them a multimill
ion dollar asset.
Construction projects, however,
have been the main cause of tree
damage or loss, Ray said, specifi
cally street and sidewalk construc
tion.
“We have had one mile of new
street construction, 2.3 miles of
street removed and 3.72 miles of
new and rebuilt sidewalks,” he said.
About 130 trees, including 26
along Old Main Drive, have been
weakened by road and sidewalk
work, yet Ray said proper feeding
and pruning will stimulate active
growth.
Weather
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A history that holds water
Mural sketched on dam wall
United Press International
BELTON — The history of
Bell County is being painted in
Texas-size proportions on the
face of an 800-foot long dam by
volunteer artists, including Girl
Scouts and farmers.
A year of planning and prepa
ration went into the mural
project before volunteers this
month began painting the sur
face of Lake Belton’s overflow
dam.
The idea originated with the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
cover an accumulation of graffiti
on the dam wall and is being
supervised by Maurine Burks,
art professor at Mary Hardin-
Baylor College. She expects the
finished painted history to attract
visitors, especially history buffs,
from throughout the state.
“I was volunteered (by the col
lege), that’s how I became in
volved,” she said. “We’ve
worked on it for nearly a year,
just doing the research. We re
doing impressions of Bell County
history — my impressions. If I’m
doing the work, they’re going to
be mine.”
The mural is hardly freelance
since several college art majors
and high school students first put
their sketches on paper and then
transferred them to the dam be-
We’ll name if H<**> d&caf
ginning in July. The corps had
sandblasted the dam surface be
forehand and primed it with a
sealant.
“We did research into the dif
ferent historical things in Bell
County,” Burks said, “then did a
master plan. That’s what we have
followed. We stated off with
Peter Bell, the third governor of
Texas in the center.
“We are doing the historical
buildings of Mary Hardin-
Baylor. This college is 130 years
old. There are houses from Be
lton, Temple, Killeen, Salado,
Moffitt, Rogers and all the little
villages around in Bell County.
They all have something repre
sented on the dam.
“We also are showing the rec
reation that’s here, the lakes.
plus Fort Hood and wealsohau
the ranchers and farmers repre-
sented on the dam.”
Some of the sketches are
small they require very close ij
speetion. Other scenes are re
ognized easily from the highway
“We invited everyone in Be!
County to come out and \
Burks said. “They’re part of tin
project and I figure this will keep
the graffiti off of it.”
in Texas-
Don’t look in Texas record books for the summer of 1978. It was ...
(ho hum) ... only average.
Despite a popular notion that June, July and August were among
the hottest ever - they weren’t, according to State Climatologist John
Griffiths of Texas A&M University.
Temperatures were even below normal in some areas and the hot
test sections of the state - the Northeast and Trans-Pecos - only
pushed the mercury a little past 1 degree above average.
Widespread news accounts of record number of days in the 100s
may have contributed to the belief that 1978 would earn a hot spot in
history, Griffiths says.
However, the three-month period differed very little from the
preceding year, the Texas A&M meteorologist says.
The 1978 figures were higher than 1975 and 1976, but temper
tures those years were as much as 3 degrees below normal.
Rainfall, too, was about average in Texas, even in areas nothitk
killer floods in August that followed drought-like conditions.
In fact, eight of the 15 weather reporting regions received above
normal totals and the rest recorded 60 percent to 90 percent of their
average for that period, Griffiths says.
Long strings of 100-plus days and rampaging floods make head
lines, he explains, but they occur at only a few of the hundreds d
weather reporting stations across Texas that turn in readings 365days
a year.
When abnormal conditions are thrown in the hopper with the rest,
the average is often affected very little, Griffiths says.
TTI engineers trying to solve
highway maintenance problems
A “maintenance crisis ’ on the na
tion’s highways has engineers at the
middle of a candle buring on both
ends.
On one end, the flame is fed by
increasing traffic and heavier loads
combined with pavement deteriora
tion. Last winter’s severe weather
boosted the deterioration rate.
Opposite that burns the eco
nomics of highway maintenance,
which traditionally takes abvout 50
cents of each dollar earmarked for
highways. Inflation fans the flame.
“It costs more to maintain high
ways now than it did to build them
15 years ago,” remarked Dr. Donald
Saylak of the Texas Transportation
Institute at Texas A&M University.
Complex problems are ahead, but
Saylak and other highway engineers
MSC
Political
Forum
say they feel there are economically
feasible solutions that can meet in
creasing demands placed on public
roads.
If the problems can be corralled
and successfully attacked in Texas,
the candle flames may be slowed
and stopped, perhaps snuffed.
Texas has 73,000 miles of state-
maintained highways, Saylak said.
Solutions are possible in several
areas. They range from repaving
with material taken from roadways
and new, lower-cost binders and
aggregates, to new pavement evalu
ation methods.
Jon Epps. Sulphur-extended a:
sections are being tested in thi
cations in Texas and one in
Carolina. Others will soon be
structed in Mississippi and Fl
Another TTI project is inve:
ing use of fly ash as a replace
for portland cement. Fly asl
solid waste from lignite coal
bustion. Even more basic TTI
is going into building bette:
coats.
General William
Westmoreland
“At times it comes to a tradeoff
between resurfacing or other
maintenance, or completely re
building after a section shows exces
sive distress,” Saylak said.
Another factor is the effect of the
new policy on use of Federal High
way Administration funds. It places
highway engineers in transition,
from “research on how to build new
pavement to how to take care of
what we’ve got,” said Joe Mahoney,
a civil engineering graduate student
from Mathis.
“Trouble Spots
Around the Globe”
Oct. 19
8 p.m.
Rudder Theater
One concept being pursued in
Minnesota takes up old pavement,
rejuvenates it and reapplies the mix
ture. Saylak noted that softeners
and additional binder are required
in the process, still in development.
“Oxygen attacks asphalt surfaces
and makes them brittle,” he said.
“The nice thing about this type of
maintenance is that it doesn’t just
lay something on top of old pave
ment.” He explained that this pro
cess allows retaining the original
grade line which is importnat on city
streets between curbs.
“There’s one hangup,” he com
mented. “When asphalt is exposed
to open flame, a lot of smoke is gen
erated.”
A partial substitute for the expen
sive petroleum-based highway con
struction material is being de
veloped through TTI research x>f
Proffessor Bob Callaway and Dr.
Maintenance on freeways
major Texas cities struggles aga
and adds to congestion. Dr. Will
Ledbetter at TTI is lookingfor«i
to schedule work in off-peak k
and get crews on and off the
quicker.
A new pavement evaluationta
nique is among “a lot of things!
pening now,” Mahoney said,
technique is to be implement
soon by the Texas Department
Highways and Public Transport
tion, with which TTI researd
closely associated, and is expert
to better utilize maintenance li«
by getting work crews on the jo!
the optimum time, before a secS
degrades to a more expenst
maintenance point.
“The technique considers k
things,” Mahoney said. “Crachi
rutting and potholing are combi#
with ride smoothness, skid re#
tance and aggregate polish, am#
other things, to make the deter#
nation.”
Saylak said a highway may*
work from a safety standpi
though no obvious signs of M
rioration are evident.
“Aggregate polish and rou«l
reduces traction betwen acarsli
and the surface. Untrained obse#
tion cannot detect this problem, I
said.
“Other concerns, such asj#
patching potholes, exist,’ ' Sal
added. “A sulphur-extended pat#
ing mixture is in development,
being tested, but data is insufW
as yet.”
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