De-installation Art

Tree climber on the River Walk. Photo by Veronica Salinas.

Photo by Veronica Salinas.

It takes three months to string the trees of the River Walk with holiday lights. That's seventeen miles of lights and 140 trees, with some reaching 95 feet in height. The installation crew begins hauling bulbs, plugs and RoMax hose up into the crowns of San Antonio's cypresses around September and works right up to Christmastime when the lights turn on.

The lights are one of San Antonio's most popular tourist attractions, inspiring many to drive hundreds of miles just to stroll under them and sip a margarita on the riverbank.

But in mid-January, just a month after the last bulb got screwed in, the project to strike all the lights starts. Squirrels gnaw and birds peck at the cables, and the intense summer sunlight scorches the color from the bulbs, necessitating the yearly build-up and breakdown. The deinstallation project lasts two months.

The crew responsible for both jobs, which altogether provide nearly half a year of steady work, consists of only three members. One, the supervisor, is an employee of the city's Downtown Operations department (DTOPS); the other two, independent contractors to the department (through Preferred Landscape and Lighting), are tree climbers.

The process is slow and straightforward. David Cervantes and Cris Galvan, the climbers, ascend the trees, hoisting themselves up with nylon ropes tied to their harnesses, and disconnect the strings of lights, which are all knotted together in the topmost branches. Juan Hernandez, the supervisor, then goes around the base of the tree with a hook yanking the disconnected lights to the ground, causing lines of blue, red and green bulbs to burst rapidly against the concrete.

"Sounds like popcorn," says Hernandez, hooking another string, "Poppoppoppoppop!"

Because of the River Walk's unusual layout, the city employs tree climbers instead of traditional electrical maintenance crews.

"There's no access to the lights at ground level," explains Paula Stallcup, Downtown Operations Director, referring to the sunken nature of the River Walk, which positions it below the city's streets. "The crew can't park a truck next to a tree and just send a bucket up to get the lights."

So the city resorts to hooks and ropes, turning the River Walk into a sort of Ewok village.

The crew averages eight trees a day, working seven hours a day, five days a week. Cervantes, who has worked as a landscaper and arborist for 16 years, rises up into the trees effortlessly like a human spider. Galvan was only recently hired by the company and is still being trained by Cervantes, so his ascent is a little slower.

"Lift yourself up with your legs," Cervantes advises while Galvan scales the first tree, a tall cypress at Houston Street. Galvan slides the tight Blake's hitch knot forward and straightens his legs as if rising out of a squat. He gains a foot on the tree.

While Cervantes and Galvan are climbing, Hernandez waits with the hook, waving and hollering to all the passing riverboat drivers, whom he knows from over twenty years working for the city. Most of the year he transports downtown garbage to the landfill, but because the DTOPS Senior Electrician, who normally leads the project, is on vacation, Hernandez has taken over.

"Ready!" Galvan calls from the treetop when he's loosed the stringers from it. He's so high up and skinny that he's camouflaged, making it seem briefly that the voice came from the tree itself.

When Hernandez jerks the first string, it gets tangled on the branch. He tries again, still unsuccessfully. He puts all his weight into the third heave and tears the heavy-duty plastic of the string, snapping it in half. The broken strand sways awhile, then stops.

The crew pulls the rest of the stringers, clearing the walkway by blowing glass shards into the river with a leaf blower. The snapped strand is still hanging when they move on to the next tree.

"Oh that?" says Hernandez when I ask about it, "We'll get it. In September when we come back."

Cervantes, Hernandez and Galvan will be climbing trees along the River Walk until early March.