SFX of clear cutting in Kennesaw

Narration: Just north of metro Atlanta, near Kennesaw, Georgia, workers bulldoze everything, trees and topsoil included. A tractor with a huge claw picks up the fallen trees and drops them in a large metal dumpster. Clear-cutting like this is popular in Georgia, but that doesn’t mean it was always like this. Virgil Eady (EE-dee) is a retired builder. He says that today’s developers do face increased regulations and higher up front costs - building a new home in today is done differently.

VIRGIL EADY: So today it seems like the emphasis is on yield and density, which is not consistency with the desire to keep trees. I come from the old school where you didn’t cut if you didn’t have to.

Narration: To help deter clear cutting, some of metro Atlanta’s counties have ordinances in place to protect trees. Marcia Bansley is the Executive Director...
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Promo: In the next installment of Tales from Urban Forests, clear cutting trees may no longer be an option for developers in Atlanta, Georgia, at least not without a fine.

Intro: As the population in cities across the country continues to grow, increased housing and development seems inevitable. Atlanta wants to make sure that such development doesn’t mean the total loss of trees in the city. Dave Barasoain (BEAR-es-wayne) from SOUNDPRINT reports.

Outro: Some cities have made it a priority to maintain trees amid new development. But some trees just can’t handle living in an urban area. In our next Tales from Urban Forests, we head to Seattle where one of the city’s beloved trees is struggling to survive. This program is part of the ongoing series, Tales from Urban Forests. The series is produced by the SOUNDPRINT Media Center, and supported in part by American Forests and the U.S. Forest Service. For more information on the series, please visit trees.soundprint.org.