The City of Salem is unduly proud about being awarded a Tree City USA designation, given that more than 3,400 cities have that title, which doesn't require very much:
- Maintaining a tree board or department.
- Having a community tree ordinance.
- Spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry.
- Celebrating Arbor Day.
Where Salem has fallen short historically is the folks at City Hall not doing enough to protect street trees from being cut down for no good reason and allowing developers to remove trees that should be preserved.
The most egregious example of this was Public Works Director Peter Fernandez engaging in a backroom deal with the U.S. Bank president to allow five beautiful, healthy trees on State Street to be removed in 2013 for (you guessed it) no good reason.
That caused a lot of outrage among tree lovers in our city, which is why I called my tell-all report of this travesty Outrage: Salem's U.S. Bank tree killings. Thankfully, nothing this bad has happened since, but smaller tree outrages have popped up over the intervening years.
Hopefully the tale of a Giant Sequoia growing on land slated for development in the area of Center Street and 23rd Street NE will have a happy ending.
My wife and I learned about this yesterday, Saturday, from Delana Beaton, a board member of the Northeast Neighbors (NEN) neighborhood association, who shared this image with us in the course of a meeting of a monthly discussion group we're a member of, along with Delana and her husband, Russ.
Unfortunately, the deadline for submitting comments on the housing development plan by Portland's Green Light Development ended at 5 pm last Friday. However, my wife, Laurel, emailed City of Salem Planner Aaron Panko anyway about her concern that the developer has requested a variance on the requirement to protect the critical root zone of the Giant Sequoia and four other trees.
She just heard from Panko that her comment can't be considered, since it was received after the deadline.
So what my wife and I are going to do, which I recommend anyone else concerned about the variance request should do, is use the Green Light Development contact form on their web site to send a message directed to Tim Lawler, the developer's representative on this project, expressing concern about the variance request. Here's how it's described on the City of Salem project application.
A Tree Variance to allow encroachment greater than 30 percent into the critical root zones for five trees dedicated for preservation.
I'm going to ask Lawler why the variance is necessary.
More bluntly put, why the heck can't Green Light Development comply with the City of Salem requirements for protecting valuable trees like the Giant Sequoia? They're almost certainly going to make a lot of money from this development. Why not make sure the Giant Sequoia and four other trees are adequately protected during construction, instead of risking their health by requesting the variance?
Please protect the trees. Why are you even thinking they are in the way or need to die? What is your motivation? Be honest with this neighborhood.
Posted by: Diane Millican | June 17, 2024 at 03:37 PM
How old is the tree?
Posted by: John | June 19, 2024 at 03:16 AM