Northern New Mexico College is rethinking plans for more than $1 million in new construction at its El Rito campus in the wake of complaints about the cutting down of 16 mature trees there.

So far, there have been two heated public discussions about the controversy — one before the board of regents on Oct. 15 and one at a community meeting Thursday.

The trees, including at least 11 Fremont cottonwoods planted some 50 years ago, some more than 50 feet tall, were toppled earlier this month prior to beginning work on the college water system and building a pedestrian plaza on the 100-year-old campus about 60 miles north of Santa Fe.

"Because of those waterlines and the plaza design, some trees were thought to be better removed and replaced with other trees," said Interim Vice President Andres Salazar. "Some community members came forward just recently and said, 'We really liked the old trees. Is there some way they could have been salvaged?' "

A student who spoke at the two recent meetings said she believes the trees were cut by college employees to quell questions being raised about the plan. "That's how developers work," she said. "If people are protesting something, they just go bulldoze it and that stops the problem."

The student said she doesn't want to be identified so she does not appear antagonistic and can work with school officials to alter the plan into something more appropriate for a high-desert environment.

"This shouldn't stop with the outing of the tree killing," she said. "Why in the world are they spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for non-native trees and plants and an irrigation system like something Intel or a shopping mall would install? It's financial folly for a school like this."

About $512,000 would be spent on connecting the college water system to that of the El Rito community and another $500,000 to build a pedestrian plaza with new trees, turf and a gazebo on the north side of the campus. The water work cost is funded by a state appropriation of several years ago. The plaza project would be paid from a state appropriation matching a grant from the McCune Foundation.

The plan was developed by NNMC's main contractor on the project — the Santa Fe engineering firm of Souder, Miller and Associates — and its subcontractors, designer Pat Westbrook and Accent Landscaping, both of Albuquerque.

In a recent e-mail to the school, Eric Tawney, an engineer-in-training for Souder, Miller and Associates' Santa Fe office, said most of the trees were "suffering from disease and were showing their age and lack of arboreal care."

Changes in the grade and drainage, the removal of asphalt, trenching for the new irrigation system and other work, he wrote, would mean the trees, with shallow root systems and no artificial irrigation, would not likely survive.

The school's director of capital projects for the past six months, David Schutz, said he reluctantly agreed to have the trees removed, though he does not know if the contractors or the school's own maintenance staff actually cut them down. But he said that after meeting with some of the people objecting to the project, he is looking to make some major changes in what is planned there.

"No one's happy about the fact that the trees were removed, including the school, and no one's more disgusted about it than I," he said. When he first learned the plan called for cutting the trees, "I blew a gasket," Schutz said, but he eventually consented because he was advised that changes in the contract would mean delays that could mean losing some of the public funding.

Schutz, a builder, ran for Santa Fe mayor in 2006, coming in second place in a three-way race behind David Coss. For three years, Schutz and his partner, Jim Borrego, have tried unsuccessfully to get Santa Fe County's approval to develop a 1,300-acre tract southwest of the city, known as the Santa Fe Canyon Ranch.

In the wake of public outcry about the trees, Schutz said, he will look into eliminating some of the irrigation system and replacing some of the axed cottonwoods with trees of the same type that are larger than the 3-inch diameter non-native trees called for in the existing contract.

"We have time because the water system is going to be implemented first, and we won't be planting till this spring," he said. "Between now and then, we'll sit with the community and the landscape architect and say, 'What do we need to do to make this low-maintenance Xeriscape?' ... We'll change the types of plants and trees, and probably eliminate the turf.

"If we can go in and bring in much larger trees at additional cost, that way you have a more immediate effect — a larger canopy, if you will — and it takes less time for them to mature."

Owen Lopez, executive director of the McCune Foundation, said he and his board members "would have blanched" had they known trees would be cut with their grant.

"It's good that all this community pressure is making them try to do the right thing after they cut all the trees down," he said. "When McCune makes grants, we don't tell them to cut down trees. We usually tell them to plant trees.

"(The $200,000 grant) was supposed to be for the betterment of the campus and the enhancement of community life in El Rito. Our mission is to do good and avoid evil, and so we try to support people who subscribe to that."

The president of NNMC's board of regents, Mike Branch, a former Santa Fe city councilor and well-known real-estate developer, was not available for comment.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080, tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.