By Danielle Skinner
WACO- Waco ISD is going back to the drawing board on plans to cut down a live oak tree. It's estimated to be hundreds of years old.
The school district wanted to cut it down and build an athletic field at the Indian Spring middle school.
A recent article in the Waco Tribune-Herald about the tree had a number of people outraged.
The tree stands at nearly 60 feet high, and 130-inches around. It has been on solid ground for more than 300 years.
Gaye Butler is from Waco. She and many others want the tree to stay alive.
"The tree has survived Indians, pioneers, tornado's, floods," Butler said. "I don't know if it's going to survive WISD"
The district's plan to build a football field over the tree was stopped after several people logged onto facebook, saying it was a "horrible idea."
District spokesperson, Dale Caffey, says they will either shrink the field or build it away from the tree. Either way they have to do it carefully.
"A sink hole developed here a few years back under a heavy rain storm," Caffey said. "There are things that are under this ground that we are unsure about."
Tree expert Don Williams said the field must be 10 ft. away from the roots underground. Building the field so close could still be a risk.
"A tree can not die of old age," Williams said. "It can only die from a lack of moisture ,a lack of nutrients or somebody damages it, because it grows an entire layer of skin every year."
Even then the tree could die within 50 years because its environment is disturbed.
Waco ISD board members are speaking with their architects and plan on hiring their own tree expert to try to keep the tree unharmed.
