Augustans make new push to save towering old trees on Telfair Street
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta Commission are set to discuss controversial plans to remove trees marked on Telfair Street.
For months, the city has seen several road construction projects, and we’ve lost a lot of shade in the process. But some people are doing all they can to save the trees on Telfair Street.
When you drive around Augusta, neighbors say the Garden City looks more like “Cone City.”
“Downtown is ... well, we’ve become the city of orange cones,” said Mark Albertin.
And once these marks appear, the chainsaws aren’t far behind.
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“Planners who are doing this stuff don’t realize that climate temperature is going up. It’s gone up in the past 10 years more than it ever has. These trees provide us with shade and protection. They provide this aesthetic beauty that we have in our city. If you hack them all down, there’s not gonna be anything here,” he said.
All over the city, trees have been disappearing for infrastructure improvements, but the pink X’s recently took neighbors in shock.
“I came to work Monday, and a good chunk of my staff was completely freaked out because they either live in Olde Town or drive through it. There were just these pink X’s that lined everywhere,” said Tonya Bonitatibus, who raised her kids in Olde Town.
“If we had not had the trees over our house on Ellis Street, my kids would have baked to death upstairs. These are 100-year-old houses,” she said.
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“They don’t have the insulation and the protection that the new neighborhoods do,” said Bonitatibus.
And these trees have been lining the street for a long time.
“I think there is often an idea that it’s kind of a bougie thing to put money into. But the fact is, if you want people to live in a community, you have to make it livable. And unfortunately, we’ve kind of struggled with that last couple of years,” she said.
Right now, the cutting is on a temporary hold. Neighbors here are calling on the community to make that hold permanent.
Albertin said: “If we don’t stand up and say something, we don’t let our city leaders know, the people that are involved with doing this right now, that this is not acceptable. It’s going to continue to happen. We’re gonna be with less of a city afterward.”
The official meeting is on June 22 at 6 p.m. at Heritage Academy. Everyone is encouraged to attend.
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