Life & Limb: City says hazardous oaks on the Downtown Mall need to come down

“We are not removing the trees because we want to." said Riaan Anthony, Deputy Director of Charlottesville Parks and Recreation.

Because the willow oaks and their staggered placement along the Downtown Mall are such important design elements of the space, a 2005 design report commissioned by the City recommended a regime of replacing 1/3 of the trees every 10 years to "minimize risk of losing all the trees at once."

Seventeen years later, City officials are now saying that some o…