By Kim Sweet
Staff Reporter
While UNL students take a quiet
moment to bask in the spring sun,
Landscape Services is racing against
Mother Nature.
For landscape crews, work that
began more than five months ago on a
cold night with the infamous October
snowstorm continues at a rapid pace.
• Crews struggle to prune as many
trees as possible before the trees begin
to blossom this spring. If they don’t beat
the clock, insects and disease will
destroy more trees.
This task is a large one for
University of Nebraska-Lincoln land
scapers on both campuses, said Kirby
Baird, City Campus landscape supervi
sor. And the tree repair is added to a full
schedule of regular spring work that
needs to be done.
Long healing process
While crews work quickly to get the
repairs done, the healing process the
dees need will take much longer than a
few weeks.
“It will take years to get the replace
ment done,” he said. “The big trees
could go on for another one to two years
and then begin to show problems.”
Each tree is assessed to see what
repair needs to be done. Some will lose
only a limb or two; others could require
major pruning or complete removal,
Baird said.
Between 35 and 38 percent of the
campus’s 10,000 trees were damaged,
Baird said. About 1,000 had to be
removed. The rest will be repaired.
The first step in the process of sav
ing the trees - cutting off branches that
presented safety concerns - has already
occurred.
The next step - fine pruning -
requires a time consuming, tree-by-tree
assessment of damage and needed
repairs.
The fine-pruning stages are often
more difficult than major trimming
stages that come first
Crews try to maneuver around trees
using bucket trucks to prune hard-to
reach places, Baird said.
Unpredictable spring weather
makes this stage difficult. When it is
windy or rainy, bucket trucks can’t be
out
Crews also climb trees to reach
places the bucket truck can’t, which
often can be tricky for landscape per
sonnel, Baird said.
The next stages involve waiting and
watching to see what kind of problems
arise. Baird estimates that 1 to 2 percent
more trees will develop snowstorm
related problems.
Saving as many as possible
This summer, tree loss will contin
ue as insects and disease take over some
of the remaining trees that are trying to
heal. If the summer is dry, tree damage
Gould be highest.
“We try to save as many trees as
possible,” Baird said. “Sometimes they
die due to circumstances out of our con
trol.”
Trees will continue to be moni
tored. Older trees will receive more
attention. Newer ones are not as critical
to monitor, Baird said.
Landscape Services also will slow
ly begin to replant trees this spring.
“We can only replace certain plants
at once,” Baird said. “We can’t just
plant a thousand new trees.”
Trees around buildings that are
being rebuilt, such as the Nebraska
Union, won’t be replaced until building
is complete.
The loss of trees also has affected
other campus vegetation, Baird said.
Shade plants located on the south side
of Love Library have to be removed
until die trees are replanted. The area is
too sunny for them now, and it will take
two to four years until the shade will
return.
Logging heavy hours
Since the storm hit in October, the
employees of Landscape Services have
logged more than 10,000 hours clean
ing up campus, Baird said.
An extra 150 to 200 hours was put
in by workers over spring break.
Crews on East Campus have shared
in logging long hours and continue tb
prune hanging limbs, said Susan
Budler, East Campus grounds supervi
sor.
“Right now we’re plugging along
with the other spring cleanup that we
have to do, “ Budler said. ' I i
But, even as the campus nears
recovery, another weather disaster
could reverse all progress, Baird said.
“Ninety-nine percent of everything
depends on the weather,” Baird said.
“People said this was a 200-year storm,
and I’ve never seen anything like it”
In absence of another disaster,
Baird said, he hopes to get all trees
pruned by December 1998.
But even then, the process of
replanting will be far from over.
Baird said he can’t predict exactly
how many years will pass before the
campus returns to its pre-storm beauty.
“It will take a long time.”
UNO to begin architectural engineering program
By Lindsay Young
Assignment Reporter
Some college students are happy to
get one job interview before they grad
uate.
But consider this: All 12 of former
Pennsylvania State Professor Gren
Yuill’s heating, ventilation and air con
ditioning students got a job before
February of their graduation year.
What’s more, one of those students,
Roger Thies, received 10 interviews
and 12 job offers - two firms wanted to
hire him without interviews.
The students were part of Penn
State’s architectural engineering pro
gram. The University of Nebraska at
Omaha is starting a similar program m
fall 1998.
“Penn State is recognized to have
the best architectural engineering pro
gram in the country,” said Yuill, direc
tor of UNO’s new architectural engi
neering program. “What we want to do
is replicate the Penn State program here
■ only improve it”
The program is being brought to
UNO because of high employment
prospects, he said. Building construc
tion is one of the biggest industries in
the country. Three of the 12 biggest
architecture/engineering firms in the
country - Dana, Larson, Roubal and
Associates; Leo Daly; and
Henningson, Durham and Richardson
Inc. - are in Omaha.
Paul Seaburg, former director of
Penn State’s architectural engineering
program, said a lot of the Penn State
graduates have come to Omaha to
work. But those Omaha firms would
like to use a few local graduates as well,
he said.
There are 14 similar programs in
the country, including those at the
University of Wyoming, the University
of Kansas and the University of
Colorado. However, most programs are
in the South, Yuill said.
“Our field is very narrow,” Yuill
said. “Our students know that they are
going to be building designers.” ■
Architectural engineers design the
heating, ventilating, air conditioning
and lighting and electrical systems of
u-—
What we want to do is replicate the Penn State \ 1
program here - only improve it ”
GrenYuill
UNO architectural engineering director
buildings. Engineering students also
will take beginning architecture class
es.
It is easy to transfer to the program
from architecture and other engineer
ing disciplines,Yuill said.. Ai
‘^lot of peopte go into architecture
and find dufthiey ar&inoi^iiiter&sted in
the technical aspects but not the aes
thetic aspects,” Yuill said.
And the course load for all first
year engineering students is similar so
students can start their second year in
architectural engineering.
-j , About 20students hwewwJlod.for
the first-year program, Yuill said. And
hb is hbt planitiing bnlimiting the num
ber of students for the program yet
I_
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