City Of Tulsa Plans To Turn Green Waste From Storm Into Mulch

A mountain of cut up trees and limbs continues to grow at a site near Tulsa’s airport, which the City refers to as a mulch site, because eventually that mountain will be reduced to mulch.

The grapple trucks that are picking up debris from neighborhoods, and homeowners cleaning up on their own, are both dumping at the site. Anyone within Tulsa County can use it.

Ken Agee of Bixby was on his third load since the storm.

"It was not only gusty, we had some trees that were twisted up, some twists up in those clouds, and I'll be glad to get it all cleaned up," Agee recalled.

Riland Nichols of Tulsa emptied a trailer full of limbs.

"I had one maple tree go down, about that big around, and my neighbor had a pecan go down, and another neighbor had an oak, a huge oak,” he said.

The City has workers with loaders pushing it as close together and as high as they can, but it's covering dozens of acres and growing.

When the contractor now cleaning can shift away from work in the neighborhoods, tub grinders will be used to reduce the pile to mulch.

With the cleanup just starting, many streets are still lined with tree limbs, including houses with entire trees cut up at the curb.

For the last three weeks, every time one truck leaves, another one pulls in. The City expects the site will be open well into August as the cleanup continues.