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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Boise Art Museum says seven crabapple trees obscuring the scene in front of the museum's facade and inhibiting outdoor seating and art placement must be removed.
The Idaho Business Review reports (http://bit.ly/GHKMVl) that notices posted on the trees say they'll be taken out sometime in December.
Boise City Forester Brian Jorgenson said the trees will possibly be replaced with sugar maple or oak trees in February or March.
"It will cost us some small trees but we will have big beautiful trees back in place," Jorgenson said. "Our goal is to always preserve any healthy trees. We can't do that in this case. The city decided to allow the removal."
Officials say the crabapple trees must be replaced because Boise is known as the "City of Trees," and it can't lose canopy coverage.
Sugar maple and oak trees grow taller than crabapple trees and can be limbed higher so that sightlines aren't obstructed and outdoor gatherings can occur underneath them.
"The original intention for the museum was for it to be visible and to be highlighted by the landscaping rather than to be covered by it," said Melanie Fales, director of the Boise Art Museum. "We hope to achieve this again as a means to fulfill our nonprofit mission."
Fales said the museum asked city officials to make some changes to the landscaping after the crabapple trees were noted as a problem in 2012, the museum's 75th anniversary.
"The actual visibility of the museum became very noticeable during this process," Fales said.
Jorgenson said the museum and Boise Parks and Recreation, which has jurisdiction, agreed that the museum would pay $8,000 in mitigation. City policy requires a dollar amount or replacing more trees than are being removed.
"Our goal is to get as much canopy as possible in the city," said Tom Governale, superintendent of Parks for Boise City Parks and Recreation. "We just want to make sure we get them replaced because we don't want to lose canopy in the City of Trees."
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Information from: Idaho Business Review , http://idahobusinessreview.com/
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