Larry Lange (seattlepi.com):The decline in park trees, largely unnoticed until now, might surprise some. City Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw, a self-described tree advocate who chairs the council's Parks & Seattle Center Committee., said "it was news to me."Howie P.S.: Wake up and smell the chainsaws, Sally. If you're wondering who to thank for this, call the City of Seattle, Dept. of Planning and DEVELOPMENT.
It wasn't to Mark Mead, forester for Seattle's Parks and Recreation department. MORE...
Saving trees like the giant maple is one way Children’s is being ‘green’ and creating a living legacy of trees and plants.Howie P.S.: Tree activists in Seattle comment:
This move is part of a major effort orchestrated by Children’s transplant thousands of plants from the construction site to areas throughout the existing campus—a majority of which will be replanted back on the site when construction is complete. Trees that cannot be salvaged will be locally milled and reused. MORE...
Michael Oxman: "In 2008 Childrens Hospital proposed removing a grove of Giant Sequoias next to the Burke Gilman Trail that have trunks that measure some 7’ in diameter.The only reason these trees are still here is because the neighbors MADE them preserve the trees.Institutions, schools and developers who regard trees as insignificant should all be handled the same way."
Rick Barrett: "Jeannie Hale led the charge for Laurelhurst and the Seattle Community Council Federation. A very remarkable activist and effective community leader. I surely hope we can develop more like her."
Janet Way: "Well, they are saving some trees now, but only after major litigation "encouraged them". Hooray for Laurelhurst Community Council and Jeannie Hale!"
It's sad. Not only for the trees lost (because we are cutting down trees in this city at an alarming rate) but because the district didn't try to do the right thing. The right thing would have been to NOT send the district lawyer to meetings with the neighbors. It would have been good to find a mediator (someone neutral) to guide the discussions. I believe a resolution would have been found sooner. I recall a member of the BEX Oversight Committee asking if this had been done and you should have seen how mystified staff looked. Almost like it hadn't occurred to them. MORE...Howie P.S.: There's a short jazz riff after the song on the video. I think it's by Miles Davis.
It's going to take a long time to replace this canopy -70 year old 100 foot tall Douglas fir, western red cedar and madrone trees - part of an uncommon plant habitat in Seattle that has been further reduced. If voters had known the Seattle School District was going to remove some of the oldest trees in Seattle they would not have approved the bond issue for this building. Alternative sites existed on the Ingraham campus, which has 28 acres. It is the largest public high school campus in the city. Next time the Seattle School District wants a bond issue to build, voters need to ask them where, not just give them a blank check to destroy needlessly our diminishing urban forest.Howie P.S.: Larry Lange has this story in this morning's PI: "Trees come down at North Seattle high school."Fans of the Seattle DJ who was recently rehired by The Mountain will recognize the voice of the announcer doing the ad on Q13 that precedes the news story.
Steve Zemke (Majority Rules):The Seattle School District is going to cut down 27 trees tomorrow Friday Jan 28, 2011 (about one quarter of the NW Grove) at Ingraham High School. For several days the School District has been assembling equipment and preparing to cut down the trees. Tomorrow students have the day off.
Tonight just before dark I went over to check things out once again and asked a worker in a hardhat when they were going to cut the trees down. His response was that "tomorrow the trees would be screaming". It's strange but I could not think of a more apt response for the trees.
If Seattle Mayor McGinn has his way, no trees in Seattle will be protected from destruction. Ingraham is only a precursor to many more trees being lost because Mayor McGinn is proposing to deregulate all tree protection in the city. Strange that someone who supposedly ran with a label as an environmentalist has no love for protecting Seattle's green infrastructure. When we tried to talk to McGinn and his staff about saving the Ingraham trees he choose to ignore us and wouldn't even schedule an opportunity for us to discuss the situation with him.
(SNIP)
The Seattle School District had prepared an Ingraham Master Plan showing they could build the addition on the open lawn on the North side without having to remove any of the tree grove.
Yet the School Administration under Superintendent Goodloe Johnson and the Seattle School Board has turned a blind eye to environmental issues, choosing not to help increase Seattle's tree canopy but instead gouge a chunk out of it by removing some of the city's oldest trees. What a great lesson for Seattle students about how to live in a world where we are increasing threatened with drastic climate change and environmental degradation as our population and use of the world's resources increases to have an ever expanding economy based on consumption. MORE...
Consider sending 10 emails as your Christmas present to yourself. 1 email to each of the 9 city councilmembers, and 1 to the Mayor could be what it takes to get them to think that the long term health of our urban forest will be how their terms of service will be remembered by future generations. It might take some of the sting out of knowing that they definitely will be remembered for allowing the Ingraham High School forest to be logged on their watch.Here’s a reminder of the ‘plan’ to convince the Seattle City Council to implement a comprehensive tree policy.We need to issue a draft tree ordinance to counter the regressive DPD proposal that is currently on the table.
View this PREPOSTEROUS 2:46 second video taken at the rollout of the proposal on July 14th, 2010. We were completely blindsided when the city proposed to eliminate all city tree ordinances.The authority of different departments needs to be combined. The UF IDT Urban Forestry Interdisciplinary Task Force needs to be given tree czar power. Can it be shown that the new mayor is willing to buck the power of the department directors? Maybe we need to begin campaigning for the next election with our ‘environmental voter scorecard’?
Activists say the City of Seattle is planning to eliminate many protections for trees, paving the way for developers.Howie P.S.: Feel free to add comments!
Phuong Le (AP):Tree lovers are now fighting proposed city rules that would remove current protections for large, exceptional trees, and do not include a requirement that property owners get a permit to remove a tree.
"We're the Emerald City because of the trees," said Cass Turnbull, founder of PlantAmnesty, a Seattle-based nonprofit, who favors a permit system as a way to slow down tree-cutting and give people pause. "Trees grow here very easily so we tend to take them for granted."
The proposed tree regulations come at a time when the city is trying to expand its tree canopy to 30 percent by 2037, and a city audit last year called for improvements in the city's stewardship of trees. Seattle's tree coverage shrank from 40 percent in 1972 to about 23 percent in 2007. MORE...
Maybe it’s time to check if Seattle Mayor Michael McGinn is still carrying his Sierra Club Card. His Department of Planning and Development (DPD) has issued a controversial draft proposal, entitled City of Seattle Proposed Tree Regulations Dated July 14, 2010.Howie P.S.: This may sound cruel but I get the impression that Hizzoner is a phony.
Unfortunately the proposal represents a complete reversal of recent tree protection legislation passed by the Seattle City Council and signed by McGinn’s predecessor, Mayor Greg Nickels. The proposal calls for ending all protection for mature trees in Seattle. It would rescind Director’s Rules 16-2008 which protects exceptional trees in Seattle.
It would also repeal the interim tree ordinance passed last year by the City Council which among other things protected tree groves and limited the number of trees which could be cut down in any given year. DPD’s proposal runs counter to Resolution 31138, passed by the Seattle City Council last year calling for strengthening trees protections, not weakening them. And it ignores most of the problems identified by the City Auditor in 2009 entitled “Management of City’s Trees Can be Improved.” MORE...
Barbara Fenig (HuffPo): Did you see the Champs-Elysees when it was turned into an urban garden for two days in May?
