Why are they bulldozing all the old oak trees on bypass

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84AGEC
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4:40p, 10/21/25
AG
Because why ?



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AggiePhil
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4:41p, 10/21/25
AG
https://texags.com/forums/35/topics/3569634
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MyNameIsJeff
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4:42p, 10/21/25
AG
Preparation for the expansion project.

https://www.kbtx.com/2025/10/21/txdot-begins-preparations-highway-construction/
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EBrazosAg
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4:58p, 10/21/25
AG
Progress
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doubledog
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5:02p, 10/21/25
It is the tree's fault for growing so close to Highway 6.
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Jinx
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5:27p, 10/21/25
The kbtx article also says they'll be replanting native trees, shrubs, etc. I'm glad to hear that but I'm sure people will fuss over that as well.
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tu ag
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5:39p, 10/21/25
AG
Remember when they put all those trees at 6 and University to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Yeah. I do.
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TyHolden
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8:31p, 10/21/25
AG
what they'll be saying when the trees are replanted....

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woodometer
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8:42p, 10/21/25
AG
The girl from TXDOT claimed last night that they had planted all of the trees originally during past construction and that they will be planting new trees and shrubs and flowers. I feel like they didnt plant those hundred year old oaks they have torn down. These assurances of new trees brought to you by the same folks that built the medians.
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EBrazosAg
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In reply to woodometer • 9:14p, 10/21/25
AG
Most of those trees were planted in the past 20-25 yr. Not with construction of the loop. I along with many others remember- i believe it happened with the conversion from 2 way to 1 way access and the whole entrance/exit swaps.
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Ag97
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9:27p, 10/21/25
AG
Here we go again with the trees. Same thing was said about the trees the last time the bypass was expanded. Those trees being torn down aren't 100 years old.

They'll get replanted and in 30 years, people can complain about the "irreplaceable, old growth) forest being torn down for progress when we expand the bypass again.

Wash, rinse, repeat.
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5thSergeantPumpkin
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10:39p, 10/21/25
AG
I'm sure they've already got plans for it, but I do hope they come back through and spread bluebonnet seed after all the upgrades. I love seeing them every spring off the highways and Harvey Mitchell
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phillytex24
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In reply to woodometer • 12:00a, 10/22/25
woodometer said:
The girl from TXDOT claimed last night that they had planted all of the trees originally during past construction and that they will be planting new trees and shrubs and flowers. I feel like they didnt plant those hundred year old oaks they have torn down. These assurances of new trees brought to you by the same folks that built the medians.


Exactly! This is maddening!
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doubledog
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In reply to tu ag • 8:38a, 10/22/25
tu ag said:
Remember when they put all those trees at 6 and University to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Yeah. I do.

That was Lord Crompton's idea and yes the Crompton park is named after him. The park is an example of Legacy Building by members of the CoCS (unintentional or intentional).

FYI I like Crompton park, although I don't think it was his idea.
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tu ag
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8:40a, 10/22/25
AG
It is the amount they spend on trees that they then bulldoze in a few decades which gets me.

As someone else said, just throw out wildflower seeds, save the tax money, and call it a day.
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Tim Weaver
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3:05p, 10/22/25
Most of those trees were young, but a few were legit old trees.


Also this is on my commute so I'll be hating life for the next 7-15 years it'll take to actually get done.
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TyHolden
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3:09p, 10/22/25
AG
Any idea how this will affect the traffic noise? I'm guessing the trees weren't blocking out much. When they did this in another city I lived in, the noise went up 2-3 fold. I think they were much denser though.
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halibut sinclair
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In reply to TyHolden • 3:55p, 10/27/25
TyHolden said:
Any idea how this will affect the traffic noise? I'm guessing the trees weren't blocking out much. When they did this in another city I lived in, the noise went up 2-3 fold. I think they were much denser though.

TxDOT should use some of those dollars they like to spend to put up some sound walls or build earth berms or something to reduce the bypass noise.
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toolshed
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10:22a, 10/28/25
AG
They don't have billions anymore, they spent them all.

The pushed the construction on 1179 a year back so they could allocate that $$ into the 6 project.
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Duffel Pud
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In reply to halibut sinclair • 10:27a, 10/31/25
halibut sinclair said:
TyHolden said:
Any idea how this will affect the traffic noise? I'm guessing the trees weren't blocking out much. When they did this in another city I lived in, the noise went up 2-3 fold. I think they were much denser though.

TxDOT should use some of those dollars they like to spend to put up some sound walls or build earth berms or something to reduce the bypass noise.

Those trees were planted to save the planet after councilman Crompton shamed the rest of the council into funding them with his 'grandchildren/rowboat' rant. That monologue was comedy gold!
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WolfCall
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2:57p, 10/31/25
AG
Regardless of how old the trees are, there has been a large loss of trees across the Greater Bryan-College Station Ecosystem (GBCSE) over the last thirty-five years of rather unrestrained growth. And, no one can say developers, as a whole, have gone out of their way to preserve existing trees on properties developed in the GBCSE over the last 35 years.

Many properties have been completely bull dozed of all trees before any development begins.

What would I suggest:
  • decreased taxes for commercial properties in the GBCSE with trees (need landscape architects to work out formula on sliding scale that would reward trees by genus/species and percentage of property with trees)
  • subsidies to commercial property developers/property owners who retain trees (see parenthetical in frirst bullet supra) when they develop the property
  • other incentives .........
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techno-ag
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In reply to WolfCall • 3:08p, 10/31/25
AG
WolfCall said:
Regardless of how old the trees are, there has been a large loss of trees across the Greater Bryan-College Station Ecosystem (GBCSE) over the last thirty-five years of rather unrestrained growth. And, no one can say developers, as a whole, have gone out of their way to preserve existing trees on properties developed in the GBCSE over the last 35 years.

Many properties have been completely bull dozed of all trees before any development begins.

What would I suggest:
  • decreased taxes for commercial properties in the GBCSE with trees (need landscape architects to work out formula on sliding scale that would reward trees by genus/species and percentage of property with trees)
  • subsidies to commercial property developers/property owners who retain trees (see parenthetical in frirst bullet supra) when they develop the property
  • other incentives .........

Or… just encourage the planting of trees. One of the groups on campus for instance gave away a ton of trees last week and encouraged students to plant them locally.
The left cannot kill the Spirit of Charlie Kirk.
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MyNameIsJeff
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In reply to WolfCall • 3:33p, 10/31/25
AG
This is largely already in place, except that it is required for permitting rather than tax reduction/subsidies. New construction has a "Landscape points" requirement based on SF and other criteria that is largely met by preserving existing and planting new trees. Caliper and species determines how many points are awarded.
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WolfCall
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In reply to MyNameIsJeff • 3:38p, 10/31/25
AG
MyNameIsJeff said:
This is largely already in place, except that it is required for permitting rather than tax reduction/subsidies. New construction has a "Landscape points" requirement based on SF and other criteria that is largely met by preserving existing and planting new trees. Caliper and species determines how many points are awarded.

Thank you for this intel.

I'm curious how many trees were preserved at the new HEB site on Booneville Rd?
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MyNameIsJeff
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In reply to WolfCall • 4:14p, 10/31/25
AG
No clue. That site has been largely cleared for as long as I can remember.

EDIT: Actually looks like it was cleared between 9/17 and 12/19, per Google Earth imagery. I guess I didn't frequent that side of town back then.
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Ag97
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4:34p, 10/31/25
AG
The vast majority of native trees in this area that are being developed are post oak and water oak. Both have fairly fragile root systems and will die if you look at them wrong. For the most part, you are just wasting money and time trying to plan development around either of those species.

Most of your highly desired, old growth trees are found in the creek bottoms and flood plains where it is already difficult to develop anyways.

We have very few what you would consider "old trees". Go to Cushing Library and look at aerial photos of the area around campus and Brazos county from the early 1900's when airplanes were just being invented. There were very few trees at that time outside of the creek bottoms. Most of the rest of the area was what would be considered plains. We are located in the transition from the coastal plains to the south and post oak savannah to the north and west. Previous to the development of roads and towns, this area used to have range fires that kept trees from growing in most areas outside of the creek bottoms. It was mainly grassland. That is our native state.
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Buford T. Justice
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11:42a, 11/1/25
AG
I wish that they could be cut up for fire wood.
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doubledog
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In reply to Ag97 • 12:42p, 11/1/25
Ag97 said:
The vast majority of native trees in this area that are being developed are post oak and water oak. Both have fairly fragile root systems and will die if you look at them wrong. For the most part, you are just wasting money and time trying to plan development around either of those species.

Most of your highly desired, old growth trees are found in the creek bottoms and flood plains where it is already difficult to develop anyways.

We have very few what you would consider "old trees". Go to Cushing Library and look at aerial photos of the area around campus and Brazos county from the early 1900's when airplanes were just being invented. There were very few trees at that time outside of the creek bottoms. Most of the rest of the area was what would be considered plains. We are located in the transition from the coastal plains to the south and post oak savannah to the north and west. Previous to the development of roads and towns, this area used to have range fires that kept trees from growing in most areas outside of the creek bottoms. It was mainly grassland. That is our native state.

Spanish explorers, such as de Lion ,found a large thicket of post oaks and cedar which they called madera grande. A few pathways through the thicket (such as the game trails that later became OSR) were passable. After settlement the pioneers cut down the large trees, including the cedars and converted the valley to grasslands, which can be seen in the early photos of the area. FYI a few of these cedars logs could still be seen in the old dog run houses that dotted this area, up until the 1980s.
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techno-ag
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In reply to Buford T. Justice • 12:51p, 11/1/25
AG
Buford T. Justice said:
I wish that they could be cut up for fire wood.
Come the spring rains, TxDOT will burn them. At least that's what they did when expanding 21. So they will become firewood, just not for personal use.
The left cannot kill the Spirit of Charlie Kirk.
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AgDotCom
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In reply to Duffel Pud • 2:32p, 11/2/25
Duffel Pud said:
halibut sinclair said:
TyHolden said:
Any idea how this will affect the traffic noise? I'm guessing the trees weren't blocking out much. When they did this in another city I lived in, the noise went up 2-3 fold. I think they were much denser though.

TxDOT should use some of those dollars they like to spend to put up some sound walls or build earth berms or something to reduce the bypass noise.

Those trees were planted to save the planet after councilman Crompton shamed the rest of the council into funding them with his 'grandchildren/rowboat' rant. That monologue was comedy gold!

This is 100% my recollection also, that being it was paid by the City of College Station in response to John Crompton's rant.

I think Crompton or his advocates referred to it as a "carbon sink", though I could be wrong. I also may be wrong about the cost being $250,000, but that's what I remember. I was fairly confident those trees would be gone within 40-50 years and that money would be wasted.....I was wrong about that too, because it only took about 20 years to waste it.
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PS3D
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In reply to WolfCall • 10:11p, 11/2/25
WolfCall said:
Regardless of how old the trees are, there has been a large loss of trees across the Greater Bryan-College Station Ecosystem (GBCSE) over the last thirty-five years of rather unrestrained growth. And, no one can say developers, as a whole, have gone out of their way to preserve existing trees on properties developed in the GBCSE over the last 35 years.

Many properties have been completely bull dozed of all trees before any development begins.

What would I suggest:
  • decreased taxes for commercial properties in the GBCSE with trees (need landscape architects to work out formula on sliding scale that would reward trees by genus/species and percentage of property with trees)
  • subsidies to commercial property developers/property owners who retain trees (see parenthetical in frirst bullet supra) when they develop the property
  • other incentives .........


Droughts and disease happen. Tying tax dollars to what is essentially a random outcome is a bad idea.

Also when it comes to commercial properties, most of the landscaping crews do a terrible job at tree maintenance. Trimming a tree is more than just lopping off whatever sticks out, a lot of trees have become way uglier than they should because they cut off the limbs incorrectly.

Also also do you want the government to create some sort of paid "tree council consultants" to decide what you can and can't plant on your property? I don't.

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WolfCall
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11:23a, 11/4/25
AG
I just returned on Saturday from an extended stay in south Texas and had not seen the Tree Killing Fields* along the Highway Six Bypass. It does look bad. I realize they had to be taken out for the 5-7 year construction remodeling the Bypass.

The SH 6 Bypass had two lanes each way back in 1972 when I first came here, and needed three to four lanes each way back in the 1990s when I returned here. It was frustrating seeing the Texas Highway Department (aka TxDot) spend so much time, money, and effort rearranging the entrance and exit ramps, without addressing the congestion on the Bypass not attributable to the exit ramps.

Back to trees, I would like to see some enterprising person plant a small white cross, on properties under development, for each tree taken out that has a tree-trunk diameter greater than three inches.

* No hard feelings STAFF if you delete my post. :-)
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MyNameIsJeff
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In reply to WolfCall • 11:48a, 11/4/25
AG
WolfCall said:
Back to trees, I would like to see some enterprising person plant a small white cross, on properties under development, for each tree taken out that has a tree-trunk diameter greater than three inches.

What would that accomplish?
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trouble
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In reply to WolfCall • 11:56a, 11/4/25
AG
I mean, you could do that
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WolfCall
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In reply to trouble • 2:12p, 11/4/25
AG
trouble said:
I mean, you could do that

I did say enterprising person.
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