Tree fights back

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear, it's not nearly as worrisome as when a tree falls in Piedmont Park and injures 13 people.↵↵
↵Although officials with the City of Atlanta's Parks and Recreation Department reportedly couldn't find any more trees likely to fall after one crashed into tents and a golf cart at the Dogwood Festival April 8, tree experts say the park provides the perfect place for this kind of mishap to repeat itself.↵↵
↵Marcia Bansley, executive director of Trees Atlanta, explains that in Atlanta tree roots encounter airtight clay about three feet below the ground, so trees here aren't anchored by a massive tap root. Instead, they spread a broad network of roots across the surface of the ground. Consequently, in Piedmont Park where about 100,000 people go to play on any given sunny day, oxygen-seeking tree roots get trampled. Deprived of air, the roots dry up and the tree falls over. Without an ongoing maintenance program, she says, this could happen again.↵↵
↵Karl McCray, director of the city's department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, however, points out that the city has an ongoing program. In February, a company hired by the city identified 12 dangerous trees that were then removed. The tree that fell last weekend was not on the list.↵↵
↵Although it's not uncommon for trees in parks to fall, according to McCray this is the first such Atlanta accident with injuries in at least 27 years.