Knox County residents value their trees and would like to see more of them saved from the developer's ax, but they don't want regulations on private landscaping, according to a new University of Tennessee study.
But the report also shows that county residents by and large aren't aware of the regulations governing trees, which cover about half of the county's 526 square miles.
UT issued the study this week, just as the Metropolitan Planning Commission finished revisions, made at the request of developers, to a tree planting and preservation plan.
One of the study's authors, Kim Davis of UT's Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, said in a statement that the study offers "a unique look" at residents' attitudes toward the urban forest.
According to the study, 87 percent of respondents think subdivision developers should cut down fewer trees and 81 percent think developers of commercial property should be required to plant new trees and protect old ones.
Only 53 percent said there should be stronger regulations on protecting large older trees on private residential property.
"Knox County homeowners support having tougher requirements for commercial and residential developers to protect and plant trees," Davis said. "However, survey respondents were less supportive of having stricter rules about what they do with trees in their yards."
The county's forest cover is shrinking. According to a 2002 study by American Forests, Knox County lost 15,000 acres of moderate to heavily forested land - about 4 percent of its wooded area - between 1989 and 1999.
Regulations vary in all three of Knox County's governmental jurisdictions, though 93 percent of the respondents knew little or nothing about public tree programs and ordinances.
Knoxville has a tree board, a 1,000-tree-a-year planting program and regulations on cutting trees. For example, city landowners can only cut a quarter of the trees covering any unused lot in a five-year period.
Farragut's regulations are more stringent. Trees larger than a certain size - which varies based on the type of tree - are protected from chainsaws, and no trees can be removed from "environmentally sensitive" areas.
Knox County, on the other hand, has requirements for tree planting at new developments but doesn't protect existing trees except for a provision that calls for preserving them in new subdivisions "wherever possible."
The Metropolitan Planning Commission staff developed a tree conservation and planting plan in 2004, but final approval has been delayed because of revisions made at the request of developers.
Mike Carberry, who spearheaded the MPC planning effort, said his office just put the finishing touches on the plan and is circulating a draft to stakeholders for comment.
Carberry said MPC staff dropped a proposal that the city and county adopt similar laws after area homebuilders raised concerns about it.
"The idea of ordinances makes the homebuilders a little leery," Carberry said.
Carberry said that while developers often clear land during construction, homeowners move in and plant new trees.
"A lot of the single-family areas get reforested," he said. "If you look back at West Hills in the '50s, it was farm land."
The MPC proposal retains a recommendation for the creation of a joint city-county tree board to advise local officials and the formation of a nonprofit organization to combine resources and administer programs. The MPC, Knoxville City Council and Knox County Commission would have to approve the plan.
In a phone interview, Davis said dropping the ordinance runs counter to the survey results showing that residents want stricter controls on developers.
"This is a scientific study that's representative of Knox County," Davis said. "Farragut has a very strict tree ordinance and they enforce it. It's an example of how it can work."
The study is based on a survey completed by 976 residents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.
UT's Waste Management Research and Education Institute issued the report, in affiliation with the UT Sociology and Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries departments. Additional funding came from the U.S. Forest Service and Tennessee Department of Agriculture.Knoxville News Sentinel
