- Seattle Public Schools
- SPS says proposed addition (left) will remove 29 trees
A more than two-year-long battle between the Seattle Public Schools and a group of neighbors over a grove of large, rare evergreens might finally come to an end this week.
Big public institutions fighting preservationists to raze trees for development is nothing new. In this particular instance, SPS wanted to chop down about 70 of 130 trees on the Ingraham High School campus to build an additional classroom building. Environmental activists objected, and were able to get an injunction from the court to block the chain saws.
Although the school district asked King County Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle in September to remove that injunction, she didn’t. She did, however, grant their request for an early trial which will be held Friday. “The outcome is what the district hoped for,” says Rich Hill, an attorney representing SPS. “We hope to get a decision by Nov. 5 one way or the other.” Hill says that the school district has changed the $20 million project since its inception, reducing its impacts on the environment considerably.
But Steve Zemke of Save the Trees, the group that filed the lawsuit against the district, says that SPS is misrepresenting the extent of the impact. The school district’s latest proposal claims that only 29 trees will be lost. “We say more than that will be lost,” Zemke says, estimating the number to be closer to 40. “There are some large trees too close to the construction which will die within five years.”
Zemke wants every Douglas fir, Pacific madrone, and Western red cedar in the grove to be preserved. “It’s an uncommon plant habitat and a much-needed green space,” he says. Zemke wants SPS to move the project to the north side of the campus, but the district contends that the site is “academically inferior” and will cost too much.
My son actually went to summer school there.
I love those trees.
“Please think of the children!!!”, Bleeding Heart
“There are no children, just trees”, Sanity
“Really? Trees?”, Bleeding Heart
“Yeah, if we cut them down, we’ll be able to make room for more classrooms. You know, for the children?”, Sanity
“Ohhh ok, in that case, f**k the trees!”, Bleeding Heart
I am so thrilled that my kids will go without art or music in their school this year so that school district lawyers will fight over some trees in the middle of one of the largest cities in the United States.
One of the largest cities in the US. Really?
And just because it’s a city doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have open space and trees. They kinda clean the air, help with stormwater, positively affect human health, provide habitat for urban wildlife. You know, just a few important things that happen in great cities.
@4 17th largest in the country.
Seattle isn’t just a place.
It’s a place that echoes across the world.
There are few cities in the US that can say that.
And trees are our gig.
@4 oh jeez, get over yourself. It’s not like they wanted to plow over Seward park.
I can’t believe these morons couldn’t compromise. Cut down some trees, plant triple the amount that were lost. Big whoop.
Trees come and trees go. The thing about trees around here is they grow like…. weeds. Watch a vacant lot over a decade. After 10 years the fir seedlings are turning it back into forest. I tire of living in our jungle. Take a drive through the exurbs in the winter; all those folks living in their damp moldering mossy homes at the bottom of a well of fir trees. It is depressing.
Rare? Doug firs? Western Red Cedars? No way. Madrone populations may be diminishing throughout its range but still represents strongly locally. These trees are nice, but nothing special and the district’s request as well the compromise are reasonable.
I live in that neighborhood, and the whole “save the trees” thing is just a smoke screen. The people involved are mainly interested in slowing down growth in the area. They’re old and terrified of development, so they reflexively attack anything that might lead to more density.
Sadly, I suspect the above three sentences could have been posted by anyone in any neighborhood in the city limits. It’s the same everywhere.
“Rare” trees? Come on. That’s a grove of trees that have been shorn for the first 20 feet (no smokin’ dope hidden in the grove), many of which are dead of dying. It’s not a big loss, except for hose few folks who used to appreciate a close by “dog park” where they could let their canines romp.