Flower Mound Residents Bark At Tree Removal

FLOWER MOUND (CBSDFW.COM) - James Durham walks around his property pointing to all of his trees.  He thinks some of them are more than 60 years old.

Along his street in Flower Mound big post oaks drape over the homes.  "If you raked all these trees off - this property wouldn't be worth a whole lot."

Just a block from Durham along Morriss Road the trees have disappeared.  "Oh my goodness I didn't know they were going to make it bald," says Durham "I was really shocked when I drove by there."

The post oaks and other trees have been cleared to make room for a luxury apartment community.

Wednesday afternoon a machine was on the property turning some of the trees into mulch.  "These trees here had to be 100 plus years old," says Robert Blackmon who used to live across the street "It used to be a lush thick area filled with beautiful trees."

CBS 11 News wanted to know how many trees were removed and how old they were.  Flower Mound Director of Community Affairs Michael Ryan released a statement saying "The developer will be held to the town's tree mitigation program that requires them to replenish the trees on a one-to-one basis to the extent that their property can support new trees and/or provide a payment to the town's tree replacement fund."

Flower Mound has received the Tree City USA honor for 17 years in a row, "We will continue the tradition of protecting our green canopy and devoting a great deal of resources to the preservation of trees for the benefit of all residents well into the future," the statement says.

"I think they think about their pockets and they want to get money from the builder and receive revenue taxes off that," says Blackmon.

Price Development group is heading the project.  Monte Wendler with the group said on the phone that the group will replant a number of large trees, but at this point the developer did not have a specific number.