SAN ANTONIO — A massive effort is underway to save trees in a San Antonio park.
Tonight—city leaders will be hosting a town hall meeting to discuss removing over one hundred trees from Brackenridge Park.
Protesters say the project was recently approved in a planning commission meeting last month, but there are still other hurdles.
The project must be approved by the city’s Historic Design and Review Committee. The item was pulled from last week’s agenda and is rescheduled for Wednesday, February 16. San Antonio city council member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez shared information about the project this week.
For several days, groups have been protesting the removal of the trees in the park.
In the sky and on land, several bird species call this place home.
“All of these heritage oak trees along the river wall…these are the oldest, maybe 200 or 100 years old,” Alecia Garlock says all living creatures admire the river and the trees around it.
She wants to protect them from a plan to tear them down.
“They’re going to let this habitat be destroyed,” Garlock said.
A city planning commission approved a plan to remove 104 trees from Brackenridge Park as part of a project aimed at rehabbing several historical resources—which city documents state have become a health and safety issue.
Those issues allegedly can’t be fixed without removing trees.
The project, according to city documents will also include rehabilitating an event plaza, a cultural trail, and other park infrastructure.
Those issues allegedly can’t be fixed without removing dozens of trees along the river wall, including nine heritage trees.
Matilda Torres, who is Native American, says the trees have cultural significance.
“These trees, [they connect] us to the universe, they’re called grandfathers, los abuelos,” Torres said.
During Torres and Garlock’s protests--they claim migratory birds have been disturbed by park staff. Garlock has captured video showing staff appear to click blocks of wood to scare birds.
KENS 5 reached out to the city’s parks and recreation department about the project but we were told no one was available to comment before our deadline.
Garlock says she wants to stop the chopping of trees.
“We want quiet, we want to see nature, these nesting birds are only here part-time, they leave...This is emotional, watching this destruction of Brackenridge Park, it’s very traumatic,” Garlock said.
The trees are scheduled to be removed as part of a project aimed at rehabbing several historical resources—which city documents state have become a health and safety issue.
Tonight at 6:00 pm, a virtual town hall will be held to discuss the issue, which you can view by clicking this link.