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TechnoratiLoss Looms in Seattle's Urban Forests
Fir, cedar, pine: trees that tower, weaving a grove, bringing us the forest. Willow, ash, birch, elm: trees that bend to the wind, the gusts spinning branches. Apple, hawthorn, dogwood, plum: bearers of blossoms and fruit. This is the litany of trees that carry wind through branches and cradle the nests of birds.
These are trees that have come of age, the trunk's rings telling their years, that in Seattle are disappearing by human design. City leaders boast of a goal for 30 percent tree canopy, yet strive towards it with the curious strategy of deforestation, followed by the planting of saplings.
In this scheme, trees and forests are not treasured for their intrinsic value, for their role as anchors in a chain of habitat. The role a mature tree plays in stemming climate change is dismissed with a wink and a nod to the new shoots of saplings -- 70 times less effective in their role in reducing pollution. Little heed is given to the fact that thoughtless new construction abets the forces of climate change.
Beyond the service trees provide us is the home they make to wildlife. In the Maple Leaf neighborhood, near Waldo Woods, I watched an eagle land on the tallest fir. Waldo Woods is one of Seattle's three remaining urban forests. On land once owned by Camp Fire, and the site of the former Waldo Hospital, much of the forest is slated for clearcutting, making way for new town home construction. While the developer touts that part of the grove will be saved, there is no mention that 72 trees will be lost, nor concern for the fate of the remaining trees. Once the interlocked system of roots is broken, the trees left behind are imperiled by the loss of their collective whole.
North of Maple Leaf, at Ingraham High School, a second remaining urban forest is scheduled to be torn down as part of the high school's renovation. Despite available land on-site that would avoid the trees' destruction, the renovation's design zeroed in not only on requiring new construction but also on the specific piece of land where 84 trees stand. The school district and the city seem indifferent to tearing them out.
These native forests -- that have grown over decades, extending from the land, forming a silhouette in the sky, protecting our air and water -- cannot be replicated by saplings that will take decades to mature. They are ornamentals often chosen to match a designer's cardboard visions, more suitable for blueprints than neighborhoods.
An Eastern Washington judge recently sentenced a citizen to prison for the destruction and theft of dozens of mature cedars, saying "it is like stealing a part of the history of our country." Yet in Seattle, the mayor, Seattle Public Schools and Camp Fire, conjoined with developers, are all too eager to raze two of three of our city's remaining urban forests, to steal our history and the Earth's riches, in the quest for excessive density and a quick buck.
Driving through Seattle, the city still hints of neighborhoods graced with green. Yet if we continue with plans to tear down these groves of trees, we will discover too late what it means to destroy something irreplaceable.
If we are not careful, we may turn the Emerald City into a barren city of asphalt and stone.
Nancy Dickeman lives in Seattle.
©1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10 Comments so far
Show AllBW: Thanks for the history lesson.
PLANTMAN: Until people see in nature a living companion and counterpart, Her species are taken for "things." We're in storm season in Florida and 2 live oaks were taken down on my boyfriend's property. I touched their now dead bodies, picturing how if I was a woodworker, all the things I could make of their form... garden patio furniture and such. He said trees were a dime a dozen here in Florida, raised by Republican parents, the WORK of making him grow sensitivity is quite a task. But his mentality is the pervasive one, and I write books to tweak the consciousness of all I can; argue higher intelligence into those I am given to interact personally with. I would say that the industrial takeover, the use of advertising to promote MANMADE products as "superior" to those that already exist, is the chief sin of recent times. It's set up a paradigm of dissatisfaction with the things long-evolved to give us peace and pleasure, and replaced that state with an insatiable angst, a vacuum that so many pay-for-products allege to fill, but never do.
The ugly truth about Seattle is, that long ago when it was the interim stop for supplies to the Yukon Gold rush, it "found" its civic anti-soul, as it were, in the sale of just about anything that wasn't nailed down. It was also the hub of prostitution on the west coast. Millions were made and the city grew flush from the lucre of overpriced goods and an eagerness to bend over for profit when faced with a choice between short term gain and a sense of civic pride.
Nothing has changed.
Developers have always ruled the city with impunity and virtually no regulation (that didn't fade away in the light of cold hard cash)and so we are left with the Seattle of today, massive development of ugly ugly buildings, the destruction of green spaces, lack of money for parks, and a philosophy of whoring to the highest bidder for what the Trolls call Progress.
It's a pretty town primarily for the surrounding beauty that it takes for granted, but the city itself still lacks substance, and what there is is well hidden under the garish cash-only-come-hither pancaked rouge which it mistakenly interprets as a sense of self identity.
Nickeled and Dimed Again
Mayor Greg Nickels wants people to get out of their cars this summer and walk as a way of getting around. But some people complain that walking in Seattle is unsafe, with sidewalks crumbling or nonexistent.
In my city in Europe, you can't just cut down any tree you want, even if it's your private property. You have to plant a new one for every tree you cut down unless you can prove that the tree you are cutting down is endangering your home. Maybe Seattle should think of similar laws.
Seattle deserves to lose just like the rest of the country for banning hemp which could have been used in place of trees. When will America ever learn? NEVER, it seems until it's too late. Unless you are ready to join me in standing up to the ban on Cannabis and allow it to compete with Big Lumber in the market, you have no right to cry over spilled milk which in this case happens to be the rain forests. I saw this coming in the 1970s when the DEA was created to prevent Cannabis from competing with Big Business interests and Raygun, Clinton, Bush, etc ... hardened the drug war. Sorry to sound a bit too rough but when you're done grieving, maybe you can try leaving the forest alone, learn about the history of hemp and its thousands of uses and realize that you cannot afford stuff manufactured from wood and fossil fuels as they are non-renewable in addition to being harmfuel to the environment.
This makes as much sense as million dollar crappers.
What would Chief Seattle say?
Their destiny is a mystery and elections are coming up...
BTW: I heard that Seattle can't hold up it's end
of the floating bridge or the Via - DUCK!
"I thought Seattle was a progressive city;..."
The Seattle School District recently went out of state to hire Carla Santorno as the new head, and that may be at the heart of the matter. It appears that she does not share the same appreciation for envirnmental issues as most residents.
Most of the city's elected officials are extremely unhappy with the school district's decision to cut the trees, but building (and cutting) is within the school district's decisional jurisdiction.
This particular issue has exposed a flaw in the building code process. There is a review process for any permit that should have prevented the school district from cutting the trees. When that requirement was pointed out as the major hurdle however, the school district simply withdrew the application for a construction permit.
There is no requirement for reviewing tree cutting outside the construction permit. After the school district cuts the trees down, they simply intend to resubmit the construction permit, thereby circumventing the review process.
Despicable.
Or was that San Francisco...I always get those two towns mixed up.
I used to listen to Limbaugh (until I just couldn't take it anymore) to hear what the other side was saying. My favorite was when he said we plant thousands more trees per year then are cut down in the Amazon...like there is no difference between a 500 year old forest giant and a spindly little bradford pear in somebody's front yard. This smacks of the same idiotic reasoning. I thought Seattle was a progressive city; but, then, Nancy Pelosi comes from there so maybe not. No doubt she would like to broaden her base with multi-millionaire developers. Go Cindy...get em, girl!!!
Cut them all down, every last one. Replace them with cell phone towers disguised as trees.