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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Update 4/07/08 - Pipeline Has Been Re-routed. Original news story follows:XTO Energy Wants Pipeline at Metro MaplesMetro Maples Takes on Pipeline Company In Court to Determine land Use Value.February 22, 2008 -- Metro Maples needs help in stopping a large energy company, XTO Energy, from destroying a very important growing area at Metro Maples. The emminent domain of this natural gas gathering line will take some of the most important growing area and perhaps all the south windbreak needed for producing Fire Dragon® Shantungs and the other important Shantung maple cultivars that will be coming out soon. "Without the 100+ year old post oaks that cut the strong south wind, growth will suffer on Fire Dragon® maples," says Keith Johansson, owner, Metro Maples. "There are not other large trees within a mile to the south." "Metro Maples is doing more Shantung maple cultivar research than anywhere in the world and it is a shame that a pipeline has to take a permanent easement of 20 feet along half the length of my 200 foot wide property. They want nearly 700 feet or 1 acre of the total 6.1 acres that I have. It is even more unbeliveable because there is an unused and empty 90-acre piece of property right next to them which is even closer to where they want to go. There is a sand pit the other direction and they could go along that property line instead. There are sand pits everywhere on Dick Price Rd, but there isn't another Metro Maples in the whole country. The property at Metro Maples is virgin sandy land and can really grow trees well. The bore pit is also right on top of an old wagon trail road that went from Burleson to downtown Fort Worth. The best use of this land for the USA is for Metro Maples to continue doing the important work it is doing", says Keith Johansson, owner of Metro Maples. The easement land is already planted with many trees to be used for the Arboretum at Metro Maples, including the Haunted Shantung Forest which is a collection of very crooked maples, Acer triflorum, an extemely rare Acer psuedosieboldianum ssp. Takesimense from Ullung-Doo Island in the East China Sea, Doric Dragon, and many others. To date over 40 Shantung maples and hundreds of other rare maples have been planted in the Arboretum areas. I have run out of land at the farm and need all that I have, and buying more land and starting somewhere is both expensive and time consuming to travel between 2 places. So far the XTO landmen have not paid attention to my message and are about to issue the eminent domain papers. Once the papers are delivered it will be only 45 days until they start boring and clearing some of my land. The legal proceedings will not stop them as it only determines the amount of compensation they must pay. It costs too much money to actually fight them in court to stop them, so I am hoping someone at XTO will review this situation and see how wrong this pipeline location is for all of us. I guess a lot of people and XTO don't realize how important plants are to many people. There are many tree farmers, plant collectors, plant society members, garden club members, arborist, parks people, vacationers, tree-huggers or just plain 'ol land owners in our country that consider trees and plants more important to them than sports or movies or music. Gardening is a passion for millions of people around the world. (Pictures below.) Call XTO or e-mail them from their website: http://www.xtoenergy.com Here is a link to a CBS news story over this from 3/19/08: http://cbs11tv.com/local/Maple.Tree.Farmer.2.680833.html Return to - Metro Maples News Page
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