Historic trees felled for Capitol work

BOISE – Trees planted by Presidents William Howard Taft and Benjamin Harrison have been cut down as part of the renovation of Idaho’s Capitol, but the wood will be used in the new building.

Wood from the trees is being stored in nearby Eagle. State officials are awaiting proposals from woodworkers on what to make for the renovated Statehouse.

About 60 Idaho woodworkers have said they are interested in using the wood.

The wood will come from Harrison’s water oak, planted in 1891, and Taft’s Ohio Buckeye, planted in 1911.

Wood will also come from two American elms, a Norway maple, a sycamore and a red oak removed from the Statehouse grounds.

“It looks to me like a clear-cut,” Jack Kane, chairman of the Idaho Capitol Commission, told the Idaho Statesman.

Nearly all the trees on the capitol grounds have been removed ahead of excavation that’s planned for later this month.

Managers of the renovation told the commission at a meeting Wednesday that the failing health of the trees required they be removed.

Officials broke ground in April for the 2 1/2-year, $120 million remodeling and expansion of the 100-year-old Capitol, which includes construction of two underground wings.

Jeff Youtz, a commission member, said completing the renovation in time for the 2010 Legislature will be close, with the last Statehouse offices opening just days before the session begins in early January.

Commission members also were told by Paul Lawrence, whose construction management firm Jacobsen Hunt is in charge of subcontractors, that some construction bids are coming in higher than expected.

“I’m not ready to push the panic button,” Lawrence said. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

He said bids so far are about 10 percent over the $7 million budgeted for such things as scaffolding and site security.

That worried some commissioners, but Lawrence said the numbers were more of a “snapshot” at this point and not a final tally.