Children’s Healthcare Of Atlanta Is Relocating 50 Trees

ATLANTA, GA —Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the City of Brookhaven have begun relocating trees to clear space for its new campus, they announced in a joint news release Monday.

Trees from the Children’s North Druid Hills campus on Tullie Circle have been moved to locations throughout Brookhaven, including the new Peachtree Creek Greenway.

“We are excited to join with Brookhaven in the effort to save and relocate these viable trees,” said Chris Chelette, Vice President of Planning Design and Construction for Children’s in a statement. “We are continuing to work hard to make smart decisions about the resources we use, and about our environmental impact.”

The new campus will be surrounded by hundreds of hardwood and evergreen trees when the project is completed.

In total, approximately 50 trees will be relocated. The city is starting with seven trees, including three red oaks, three large dogwoods and one redbud tree. The remaining 43 trees will be kept in a specially-prepared holding nursery in Osborne Park and later transplanted in other City parks or future city developments such as landscaping for new city buildings.

Native Tree LLC is facilitating the relocation of the trees.

Brookhaven’s interim development services manager and a certified arborist, Eric Long, was the first to identify the opportunity to relocate the trees. He observed many of the landscape trees in the area appeared in good health and approached Children’s to ask if Brookhaven could save some of the trees.

“Children’s expressed an interest, so I ran the idea by Brookhaven City Manager Christian Sigman, who thoroughly endorsed the idea,” said Long. “Where else can you achieve 100 percent immediate recycling than moving a tree from one location to another? This is a unique example of sustainable development, very much in line with the City’s renewed push for achieving overall sustainability.”