Stadium Woods is priceless
Last year, Stadium Woods crashed into the public consciousness. Fans of the old-growth forest behind Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium rallied to protect the trees, some of which are older than the United States.
Since then, people who want to cut down some of the woods to make way for an indoor football training facility have remained mostly silent. They held no counter protests to rallies and events in support of preserving the woods. To our knowledge, only the editorial writers at The Collegiate Times, Tech’s student newspaper, made a significant public argument in favor of axes and chainsaws.
Administrators and the board of visitors will have the final say on whether Stadium Woods survives as is. We urge them to put the training facility elsewhere.
June 3, 2012 - 8:14 AM
This issue will determine if VT – as a university – is more interested in worshipping Frank Beamer or in excelling as a university. That’s the bottom line.
A bit dramatic don’t ya think crooked road? I would prefer that they leave the stadium woods as they are too, but it doesn’t define the university. You can’t deny that the academic success at VT has coincided with the rise of the athletic dept. Also, spend a day in Jefferson National Forrest and you will realize that 300 year old trees are not terribly rare.
Jake, while I don’t agree that building the facility on the Stadium Woods site is tantamount to Beamer worship, I do believe it will make clear what are the true priorities of the University administration. Are we a tree campus that values sustainability or is athletic expediency our highest priority? And the Jefferson National Forest doesn’t have many 300 year old trees. Those woods have been heavily logged over the years. That’s kind of the point of the debate.
I agree with Susan. Between forest fires and logging, I would be interested in knowing the acreage with 300 or more year old tree growth and how accessible it is. It cannot be something that is ever destroyed lightly in such a setting as Tech IMO.
Like I said before, I would prefer the stadium woods were left intact, but the accusatory and inflammatory remarks are completely out of line. The area is more pleasant with the forest undoubtedly. As for the university’s sustainability efforts I would point to the 1.3 million dollars worth of solar panels that were installed on the prices fork parking garage. Those solar panels couldn’t make 1.3 million dollars of electricity in 300 years. As for logging the millions of acres of national forest you will find it is closely monitored and much of the old growth is protected.
Well, the committee caved to the special interests so hopefully everyone can calm down now. And for the record, if you actually know the definition of an old-growth forest, you know that there is a difference in having some old trees and actually being old-growth.
Oh, so the sports-industrial complex isn’t a “special interest”, Chuck?