June has had no rest for the Save The Trees-Seattle crew.
There was an Urban Forestry Workshop (video)
There have been meetings for a Tree Commission with the City Council,
More meetings and comments for a permanent Tree Ordinance,
Town Hall gatherings with City Council Leaders and some School Board Directors,
All of this is to save the trees in Seattle.
And then there is the Seattle School District, and the Seattle School Board.
Where we travel back to the beginning…how Save The Trees-Seattle came into existence.
Yep, that good ole School Board is at it again. When Save the Trees-Seattle takes a deep breath and thinks there is light at the end of the long tunnel for Ingraham High School the School District tries to blow up the tunnel.
In May of 2009 the City of Seattle’s Hearing Examiner remanded the decision to build in the grove back to the Department of Planning and Development. With the express definition of the Northwest Grove of trees as being a rare plant association that must be saved under the Seattle City Municipal code (SMC’s).
We at Save the Trees-Seattle had a glimmer of hope. But the SMC allows for mitigation. And the Seattle School Board has asked for the mitigation of reducing the footprint into the Northwest Grove and removing 29 trees + Madrone…supposedly dead.
Save The Trees-Seattle, and other appellants went back to the keyboards, the computers, and the Seattle Municipal Codes to express to the Department of Planning and Development why the correct and most appropriate mitigation is to move the proposed addition to the North Lawn where very little damage will occur to the Environment. We await DPD's 2nd decision.
IN THE MEAN TIME:
On July 1 the School District, Save The Trees-Seattle, Urban Forest Stakeholders, neighbors, Seattle Department of Transportation Arborist, BEX Manager, DKA representative, School District arborist, and 2 Facilities (maintenance) staff, went into the Northwest Grove.
Why did we go? Because someone in the infinite wisdom of the School District decided that the way to get rid of the rare plant association was to declare it a fire hazard…and have it mowed. So the Fire Department accommodated the School Districts request and sent out the order…oddly specifying only the Northwest Grove as needing to be mowed. Nothing was said about the North Lawn which was just as tall with grass or the Ditch surrounding the Grove. An entire afternoon was spent marking and taking pictures of the rare plants in the Northwest Grove…we also found a young flicker in a nest…
And of course, being in proximity to each other…the School District reps and the Tree Advocates got into some Fireworks of their own---relatively only sparklers compared to what awaits in court.
The end results were…no mowing under the Trees, mowing around areas of native rare plants inside the 6 foot fence and leaving the 3 foot high grass surrounding the OUTSIDE of the fence NEXT TO THE ROAD not mowed. Why the Seattle Fire Department didn’t want the ditch mowed, where cigarettes, fireworks and other flammables are easily thrown from moving cars is beyond me. But the rare plants inside the 6 foot fence had to be mowed???? The Plants and Trees that are protected by a Temporary Restraining Order had to be mowed due to a fire hazard? What is with that? Makes you wonder what is really happening at City Hall.
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