Alexander Hedgepath called it “gnarly,” but most people would have just called it another tree in front of the library.
But Hedgepath, recently named the University’s first arborist, spends his days devoted to the approximate 7,300 trunks and canopies on Auburn’s campus.
A 2012 Auburn alumnus of forestry, Hedgepath first worked with plants when he was 18 after taking a job at a landscaping company owned by a friend in Fairhope, Alabama.
But it wasn’t until he worked at the Fairhope nursery Preast’s Petals & Pottery that he first started looking up into the branches of trees.
Hedgepath said the nursery’s owner Jim Preast sparked a lasting interest of plants in him.
“He had a true love for plants that ricocheted everywhere,” Hedgepath said. “I just kind of fed off his interests and learned a lot from Jim.”
However, geographical locations rather than relationships have been the biggest influencers for his interest in trees, Hedgepath said.
The Sipsey Wilderness in the Bankhead National Forest, Disney World and Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia, are among some of the places that inspired his interest for landscaping and trees.
As the University arborist, Hedgepath runs risk assessments on trees by studying the relationship between trees and their surroundings, such as sidewalks, buildings and roads.
If a tree shows signs of risk, like weak or dead limbs that threaten a building or other structures, he will recommend the appropriate action to take, such as pruning the tree.
He also keeps a campus-wide tree inventory, which includes identifying major trees on campus and collecting information about the campus’s urban forestry, according to Steven Johnston, superintendent of Facilities Management Landscape Services.
“It helps us determine the various ecosystem services that trees may do, like carbon storage, air pollution removal,” Johnston said. “We’re in the infant stages of our tree inventory and tree care, and Alex has already hit the ground running and has done a lot in the past month or so that he’s been here.”
The inventory will also provide architects and engineers with up-to-date locations of campus trees as they prepare new projects.
In the future, Hedgepath will contribute to the landscape planning process, reviewing blueprints and designs to recommend the best tree species to plant, the appropriate spacing for planting and to determine which trees can and cannot be protected when constructing new buildings or structures.
Hedgepath said he will be involved in the preliminary steps of development, whereas in the past the fate of trees was usually addressed after the planning stage.
“It’s all from the get-go,” Hedgepath said. “Everybody’s included, everybody’s involved so that we can make the right decision based on Auburn’s objective and based on the needs of the campus.”
Hedgepath will also visit construction sites during development to ensure tree protection, which includes fencing around trees to prevent physical harm from heavy equipment on site, according to Johnston.
Though the University’s Tree Preservation Committee assists with facilities management plans on campus and has previously managed campus tree protection, with over 600 acres of managed core campus, the University needed someone specifically dedicated to caring for trees, according to Gary Keever, professor in horticulture and member of the Tree Preservation Committee.
“It takes someone devoted, or responsible, in a position where their sole purpose is taking care of our campus trees,” Keever said. “We can’t provide that. It takes that pair of eyes there on a daily basis to really provide the minimum level of care that we need.”
Keever said he’s seen the University’s focus on tree protection increase in the past five years.
“I think with the poisoning of the Toomer’s Oaks in the fall of the 2010 Iron Bowl, the higher administration as well as the community as a whole recognizes the importance of our campus trees, much more so than before,” Keever said.
Ever since the Toomer’s Oaks poisoning, decisions about the fate of a tree on campus must go through the Tree Preservation Committee for approval, according to Hedgepath.
“I love that that system is in place, because that means that nothing is going to happen to a tree on campus that not everybody is aware of or agrees on it,” Hedgepath said.
Hedgepath worked for the City of Fairhope for three years before returning to Auburn.
“We’re going to take the best of what he learned in the classroom, take advantage of what he learned with the City of Fairhope and apply that to our campus,” Keever said. “And I think that in doing so, he’s going to become a valuable asset in the long-term management of our campus trees.”
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