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University says trees must go They'll be uprooted, given away to public ASHLAND -- Tree-lovers take note: Southern Oregon University has a whole grove of trees -- pines, maples, cherry, Douglas fir, spruce and cedar -- looking for adoption and transplanting by the June groundbreaking for the new Visual Arts Center. Those not moved will face the chainsaw. Some 20 trees, most of them 6-8 inches in diameter and up to 40 feet high, need new homes. They are worth thousands of dollars as landscape fixtures, said Pete Seda, owner of The Arborist; he is offering them for the transplant fee of $200-300 and asking that buyers make a donation to the Visual Arts Center capital campaign as well. "These are beautiful trees and SOU is trying to be very environmentally conscious and adopt them out, rather than just cut them down," Seda said. His company has transplanted seven or eight trees on campus for SOU and is being paid by being given the trees to adopt out, SOU Physical Plant Director Bruce Moats said. If a tree is adopted, arborists use a giant tree spade to slice through the ground, pull out the tree with rootball intact, drive it somewhere else, dig a hole to match the rootball and plant it, said Seda. The survival rate is near 100 percent for the transplanted trees in their new home, he said. About 15 trees are too big to move and will be cut, he added. Seda moved about 40 trees to the new North Mountain Park, many of them to hide an electrical substation. "It's been very successful," said Don Todt of Ashland Parks and Recreation. "We put in oak, ponderosa pine, cyprus, incense cedar and crabapple seven years ago and they are growing well." The trees were 6 to 15 feet high when transplanted, he said. For more information about adopting trees, contact The Arborist, 770-6789. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA