City of Olympia Response to Tree Removal on Milroy St.

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City of Olympia Response to Tree Removal on Milroy St.

Submitted by Rob Richards on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 6:45pm.

An article was posted on OlyBlog earlier today that contained some questionable information. Another OlyBlogger, Ehver Green did some fact checking on it and turned over the original misstatements from the article.

The original article was about a giant tree on Milroy that was recently cut down. The article stated that The City of Olympia cut the tree down, and the author was rightly concerned about it. The following letter is a response from the city's Urban Forestry department regarding the tree on Milroy.

Zach,

Thanks for your e-mail. I wanted to fully investigate the situation before I got back with you. As I mentioned in my previous e-mail, the City did not require this tree to be removed nor was it removed on behalf of the City. As a tree advocate, I greatly appreciate the fact that the residents of Olympia care enough about their trees to voice concern over the loss of a prominent tree. It appears that the tree was on private property and was not a violation of our tree ordinance (OMC 16.60).

Please feel free to post this information to Olyblog.

Sincerely,
Joe

Joseph Roush
Urban Forester
City of Olympia, WA
P.O. Box 1967
Olympia, WA 98512
(360)753-8046

Rob Richards's blog
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Thank you Rob

Submitted by Katherine on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 6:48pm.

:-)

Thanks to EG too!

Submitted by The Original Yoda on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 9:14pm.

...right?

More from Joe Roush (via fwd email)

Submitted by Katherine on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 1:56pm.

-----Original Message-----

From: Joe Roush Sent: Fri 3/21/2008 5:41 PM

Subject: RE: [OlyClimateAction] City of Olympia cutting down large healthy trees needed to hold & capture carbon

(name deleted),

The story you forwarded was false. The City did not remove the tree,nor was it removed on behalf of the city. I was out of the office yesterday, so I was unable to investigate the situation until today. I spoke with the adjoining property owner today and he told me that the tree was on his private property, and that he hired the tree service to do the work. To avoid the complaints of concerned citizens, he told me that he and and his tree service mislead folks by telling them the City required the tree to be removed.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the tree in question was on private property. Olympia's tree ordinance (OMC 16.60) allows trees to be removed from single family properties without permits. We intend to check our survey information to make sure the tree in question was on private property and not on the adjacent unopened right-of-way. If the tree was on right-of-way, then appropriate action will be taken to pursue the tree removal as a violation.

Regarding your other question about how many trees it would take to equal this one tree. Although it is hard to compare apples to oranges (or in this case a sequoia to an oak, maple, dogwood, etc.) my analytical side can't help but attempt to at least do the calculations... The tree in question was a Giant Sequoia. It had 28 growth rings, which means it was approximately 28 years old. The trees we are planting are 15 gallon, 6-10 foot tall, deciduous trees of varying species. Probably around 5 years old. Assuming we will meet our goal of planting 1000 of these trees (at our last count we were right at 1029 trees planned to be planted) Given our survival rate of 95% (from the 5000 trees planted over the past 10 years) That would mean the successful planting of 977 trees, 5 years old, or 4885 years of growth on the trees we are planting in one day.

Thanks for indulging my calculations. Hope to see you on March 29, 2008,

Sincerely,

Joseph Roush, Urban Forester City of Olympia, WA P.O. Box 1967 Olympia, WA 98512 (360)753-8046

Community Sleuthing

Submitted by Chia on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 2:13pm.

I like the way someone brought this matter to the attention of the OlyBlog community and people acted as a team to find out what happened.

---------
Nonviolence Includes Animals:
audio
"PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk's address to the International Nonviolence Conference in Bethlehem"

Indeed

Submitted by Katherine on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 2:27pm.

It kinda makes ya a little warm inside.

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