A 15-person ad hoc committee at Virginia Tech this week recommended against cutting down a portion of the “stadium woods,” a densely wooded area behind the football stadium, to build a new state-of-the-art indoor sports practice facility.
The controversy came to a head when environmentalists realized early this year officials planned to chop down the wooded area containing some rare old-growth trees.
The Virginia Tech Hokies have the third-longest college bowl game streak in the country, and have sold out every game since 1998. However, they have yet to win a national championship. The athletics department hopes a state-of-the-art facility nearer to the football stadium could help change that.
Blueprint plans that have been in the works for over a decade would require chopping down at least 60 trees over the age of 150. Six of the trees have been found to be more than 300 years old.
“The forest is in fact an endangered species in the United States. An old growth forest is,” Virginia Tech Forestry Professor John Seiler explained, “It’s literally the rarest type of forest structure left in the United States.”
From WTVR CBS 6 News: https://wtvr.com/2012/06/07/committee-virginia-tech-should-not-cut-down-trees-for-sports-complex/