The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee says the city is not going to cut down 21 ornamental cherry trees to make space for an NFL draft stage.
In a Saturday news release, Mayor David Briley said he’s informed the NFL and Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. that they will have to remove the trees intact and replant them in the city. Any trees that are diseased or near death will be replaced with new, healthy trees.
Briley’s announcement came after tree-planting advocates complained about the plans to chop down the old trees. They said it would have taken years for the young trees that had been promised in their place to reach maturity.
Briley says that in addition to relocating the 21 mature trees intact, the city will plant 17 new cherry trees at downtown’s Riverfront Park.