El Paso Tree Farm Readies For First Harvest
EL PASO, Tx. – El Paso has its own tree farm on five acres in the lower valley on public service board land, past Zaragosa at 790 Winn Road.
The city tree farm opened in 2004 and will soon be ready for its first harvest. Adozen different varieties, including desert willows, Arizona cyprus, pine trees, yuccas will be used in medians, around city buildings andparks as a way of beautifying our city.
These are low water-use trees and the city uses reclaimed water, which is about half the price of potable water, to water all of them. This is a huge cost-saving measure for the city.
The city used to pay 65 to 75 dollars to bring in small trees. The trees are planted as seedlings, costing about twenty-five to seventy-five cents each.
The farm was the idea of city streets department director Daryl Cole and isrun by city arborist Brent Pearson, who used to own a nursery in Canutillo.
“We’ve got about five thousand trees ready to be distributed throughout city property, in medians, parks, zoo, airport, a bunch of city property, we’re planning for the future. This first year we’ll harvest 500, next year we’ll probably harvest 700 to 1,000 of them.” Pearson said.
