Seeds that finally sprout

 Sometimes it is very surprising the timing of a previously planted seed that one had given up on as infertile when it finally sprouts.

I have been working on tree ordinances since 2016 in Seattle and 2018 in Olympia...with very little effect.  But in Seattle when the new Mayor came in some traction finally happened and they passed part of what we had long asked for: creating an exceptional tree designation and a way of fining tree professionals that cut trees that should not be cut.  

Over this Memorial Day as a I hung out with my friend Abby she got a text from someone she knew that the woman's neighbor was trying to cut down to exceptional Doug Firs in their back yard.   They had clearly waited till Memorial Day weekend knowing there would be no city staff around to call on to stop them, and apparently not being able to find Seattle tree professionals willing to risk losing their liscense they had called someone all the way from North Bend.  The guy with the truck and picked up a few day labors from Home Depot to feed wood into the chipper - who had no safety equipment.

The woman who texted Abby had called on a friend of her's Sandy.  Sandy as it so happens is someone that we had recruited into the tree work back in 2016.  Sandy and her daughter rushed over.  The daughter filmed them up in tree.  She was standing close enough that they kept urging her to leave saying a branch could fall on her.  She refused telling them what they were doing was illegal and that she was going to report them.  While they did limb the tree up (meaning taking off the lower branches in preparation for cutting of the top and then sections of the trunk), they eventually in frustration pack up and leave.

By this time Sandy had alerted the tree community and we made plans for shifts the next day to protect the tree.  Someone called the media.  The next day the tree cutters did not reappear but channel 7 news did appear and wound up doing a nice story on the matter.   Some times the seeds you plant spout much later.

Recently in Thurston County I have been trying to lend support to a campaign started by the Center for Responsible Forestry in response to a cutting frenzy that Department of Natural Resources has gone on.  DNR is responsible for managing all state forest lands and they seem to see this task as about offering up which pieces of land to to be clear cut.  There are legacy forests among DNR lands.  These are forests that were handcut with band saws before WWII when the chain saw came in.  As a result the understory was not destroyed as is the practice of modern logging.  Thus it had regenerated and how has some trees from 120 years old to 80 years old.  This is amazingly resilient and diverse forest that is a climate workhorse drawing down many times more carbon than regular trees.   So we want to see this Legacy Forest in particular protected.   And yet DNR seems to be particularly targeting it to the point that their planned sales over the next 10 years would basically decimate it.

We have successfully gotten a sign on letter from all the major environmental groups in town to the county commissioners asking them to write to DNR asking them to stop it.  One of the clear cuts of smaller trees would create flooding and pollute a lake- the commissioners again are willing to intervene.  And as we do this work about  Legacy Forests I plant more seeds of understanding that big trees are more significant than small trees, that we must protect them, that we must have an exceptional tree ordinance in Thurston County.   And so we plant these seeds and wait for them to sprout.