To pave way for rain forest exhibit, zoo rids 200 trees

I don't know if I like this. I'm not a big fan of zoos.

It's a bit awkward with having to take down trees to save trees, isn't it?

To pave way for rain forest exhibit, zoo rids 200 trees

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Crews have removed at least 200 trees at the city's Mesker Park Zoo to make way for an $11 million Amazonian rain forest exhibit that will include 650 trees and plants typically found in the tropics.

The 10,000-square-foot exhibit will include 400 trees outside Amazonia, 100 inside and a new parking lot and zoo entrance shaded by another 150 trees of both hardy tropical varieties and native hardwoods. Many of them are already growing in greenhouses at the zoo.

The zoo director sees the project as good for trees.

"I remember watching them work and a guy with me said, 'What are you going to do when the tree-huggers find out about this?' " said Dan McGinn. "I said, 'You don't understand. We are the tree-huggers. We are replacing much, much more than we are taking out.' "

The city's tree advisory board unanimously approved the plan, which follows the city's ordinance of replacing trees at a 2-to-1 ratio, said Charlotte Roesner, zoo marketing director.

The zoo's policy is to replace every tree removed on its property with six to eight new ones, McGinn said. The zoo spends $5,000 annually on maintaining its trees.

"We have some trees here that are spectacular," he said.

Construction of Amazonia will take 18 months to two years. It's expected to become the zoo's new centerpiece exhibit with tropical trees, birds, monkeys and a jaguar.