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Ott
<br /> Plants , trees and our verywell - ein
<br /> I It
<br /> b 3
<br /> IF 11
<br /> J*oFI : ne does not expect even a hint of
<br /> o controversy in the newsletter of
<br /> Flo,ell 01
<br /> 41 the N.C. Botanical Garden. s i
<br /> t ,. Fit ..• I
<br /> That is why these lines leaped out at 1 " f , z 4
<br /> t�
<br /> t � i tip ,
<br /> me and various others who called my K� 4 r `
<br /> attention to them. Located deep down 5r ,` 1
<br /> Few ,•.
<br /> .ofin a story about the fifth annual William 9;,ot Flo
<br /> " �' f `
<br /> L Hunt UNC Campus Walk from 9:30 ► " ':� � t
<br /> a.m. to noon today, they read: ;° Y 1
<br /> IV I
<br /> ' ! i•`" ` L Yt Q, a drat I
<br /> `This stroll across t
<br /> campus will also give t r9 <+
<br /> 'g • � `�'
<br /> us an opportunity to
<br /> bid farewell to some of
<br /> alt the fine old specimens �. s� • °�;
<br /> — some datintwog back to
<br /> the very founding of w
<br /> the University over ; _: ' t
<br /> ' v w, 200 years ago — that - ` . ' a 4 ^'Y { `
<br /> ' we will be losing w y t
<br /> + t
<br /> 111101 1 . 4 IFduring the current
<br /> Young campus improvement hr � r
<br /> _ r _ y, lrw _ fit
<br /> Columnist activities." r i �u rYl �c � _i' + S afa dam- 9au .S +"- ' 1
<br /> . Now, considering y, < , aft,} 'ems, ,, , i
<br /> • • how passionately so many .of us feelr '
<br /> ' about preserving the beauty of the
<br /> love
<br /> green spaces on the old campus, you 1
<br /> would have expected these words to THE HERAL6Sl1N/BILL W LLCOX
<br /> be a clarion call to arms . Arise, ye This old specimen of American holly, which is probably a remnant of the original
<br /> sons and daughters of UNC, our forest on McCorkle Place , is a companion to Davie Poplar and was the sight of
<br /> beloved alma mater is in serious William L Hunt's first stop along his " Campus Walk ." He credited this and other
<br /> danger of "improvements" designed to large hollies on the site as the inspiration behind Francis LeClair's plantings of t
<br /> 44
<br /> destroy all that we hold dear — the American holly cultivars throughout the campus during the late 1940s and ' 50s .
<br /> lovely tree-lined walkways, the vast
<br /> owl lw
<br /> : grassy lawns where we lolled about crime reports in our once placid little all show the beautiful trees and green
<br /> nIF with our boyfriends or girlfriends on town and campus , I was struck by the spaces of the old campus .
<br /> warm spring afternoons. But, alas, this extraordinary number of violent After graduating from UNC, Hunt
<br /> 1*1 lot is the fabled year of 2001 after all, and crimes being committed here almost pursued a career in landscape archi-
<br /> X IF it seems folks just don't care that daily — any one of which would have tecture that earned him the title of
<br /> much about stuff like ancient trees been unheard of here just 40 years "the dean of Southern horticulture."
<br /> to and beauty and all that. ago. It suddenly dawned on me that For decades, he wrote a regular
<br /> 2 or to 0 When I read that the walking tour maybe the corporate university suits column for the Durham Morning
<br /> '
<br /> would be restricted to 25 people, I was are maybe unwittingly designing a Herald, and he published two books
<br /> F. convinced I wouldn't be able to get on soulless concrete jungle to match the that became classics on the subject
<br /> FF-
<br /> it because there would More important, he put his money
<br /> too 0 surely be hundreds of where his mouth and heart were —
<br /> people concerned about Considering how passionately buying up the rhododendron bluffs
<br /> : 1 IFthe loss of even one along Morgan Creek as the property
<br /> historic tree. However, as s0 many Of us feel about became available. He began giving the
<br /> Fill late as Tuesday of this presermng the beauty of the green Property to UNC for a research and
<br /> to. wl week, Ken Moore, who teaching garden, and its phenomenal
<br /> I IF
<br /> will conduct the tour for spaces on the old campus' you success is an enduring monument to
<br /> the Botanical Garden, the man.
<br /> to l said he had considered would have expected these words In his last years, Hunt was a
<br /> Ott; too
<br /> canceling it because not stunning figure out of the past as he
<br /> 0 lot
<br /> enough people had signed t0 be a clarion call to arms. . . . made his way to the post office on
<br /> ort to
<br /> up . He finally agreed to But alas this 2s the fabled year of Franklin Street every day at 9 a.m.
<br /> go ahead with it when a > > and then to breakfast at. Sutton's.
<br /> FI . IF
<br /> small number called and 200I a,after all, and it seems folks Casual dress to him still meant an
<br /> made reservations. immaculate selection of coat and neat
<br /> Flo IF IF O This winter campus just don't care that much about bow tie . He bore a remarkable
<br /> s ' ; :: walk was started by the resemblance to William Faulkner, I
<br /> I
<br /> v otorlate William Lanier Hunt, stuff like ancient trees and beauty thought, and I wish I 'd known him
<br /> owl
<br /> who was never a member better,
<br /> of the university faculty, and all that. Once, when I stopped to ask him
<br /> It oli
<br /> although he did more about the purple-flowering "princess"
<br /> than anybody ever did to or "Paulownia" trees, his face
<br /> 11 IF
<br /> preserve and expand the green spaces crime reports. suddenly lit up over my interest and
<br /> on the campus and in our town. With that in mind, I hereby urge our he gave me a lively description of the
<br /> Almost single-handedly, he helped to courageous Sen. Ellie Kinnaird to tree's history.
<br /> IF create the N.C. Botanical Garden, introduce legislation as soon as The day before he died at the age of
<br /> starting with his personal gift to UNC possible to bring UNC in line with the 90 in 1996, Hunt was presented the
<br /> I Flo It. and to the state of more than 125 acres town's ordinances regarding green Botanical Garden's highest award, the
<br /> oF
<br /> It he had bought off Old Mason Farm spaces, buffer zones and offsets for Flora Caroliniana. As usual, UNC
<br /> o Road. new construction. Furthermore, the President William C. Friday voiced the
<br /> Every North Carolinian is forever in university should be forbidden from most articulate summary of the man's
<br /> I .
<br /> thiow tos man s us r o eminent domain
<br /> 's debt, for at the rate UNC is the power it din contributions to us all: "The state of
<br /> own; ' . going with its edifice complex, the until and unless public hearings are North Carolina and its university are
<br /> botanical gardens — which now held and the Town Council agrees such the fortunate benefactors of William
<br /> to
<br /> IV. . encompass nearly 600 acres — may action is in the public interest. I would Hunt's watchful eye; articulate voice
<br /> well be the only green spaces left on hope such legislation would be named and generous heart in all things
<br /> campus after the current admmistra- in honor of the late William Lanier botanical and especially the relation-
<br /> tion gets through spending the Hunt, ship of plants, trees and fields of
<br /> multiple millions from the recent bond Hunt was born and reared in the green to our very well-being. "
<br /> issue. . shadow of his uncle's nursery in That is what those who have been
<br /> Every way you look, seemingly with Greensboro, the largest and oldest in entrusted with the future of our
<br /> Saturday
<br /> no planning whatsoever, new buildings the South at that time . He is said to beloved university must learn . When
<br /> are being thrown up helter-skelter, have arrived as a UNC student in 1926 they begin "improvements" that
<br /> 2007 almost on top of each other. If you go with two truckloads of plants. His threaten to destroy the ancient trees
<br /> January 20, over to "pill hill," you'll find a hideous plantings over the next 75 years and green spaces so sacred to all our
<br /> hodgepodge of architecture and helped make our town and campus the memories, they are messing with the
<br /> absolutely no green space at all. beautiful place we all love. You have "very well-being" of all future
<br /> %
<br /> Patients are confronted with what surely noticed those television generations who will come here.
<br /> IF
<br /> looks more like an urban prison than promotion spots where the university Readers may e-mail Perry Young at
<br /> any kind of inviting and comforting presents its best side during national pyoung3@bellsouth. net or write to him clo
<br /> IF I
<br /> IF refuge of health care. sports broadcasts. Not one of them is The Chapel Hill Herald, Mallette St.,
<br /> IF + ,Reading over the incredible daily I focused on the new construction, theyv, Chapel Hill, NC 27S16.
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