After Protesters Block Street and Occupy Building Site, Dubiously Named "Grandma Brooks' Cedar" Comes Down

A crew member removes limbs from the tree late Monday morning.

By Erica C. Barnett

Between 20 and 25 protesters blocked a tree service company that was trying to reach a construction site in the Ravenna neighborhood on Monday morning, where residents and activists from outside the area have been protesting the removal of a western red cedar since earlier this month. About 10 police officers showed later to remove protesters from the development site, arresting at least one who refused to leave. PhotogSteve81, on Instagram, captured the chaotic scene.

The tree stood on the corner of a lot where a builder, Ashworth Homes, plans to replace a single-family house with four new townhomes—and where Barbara Brooks, the former owner, lived for more than 70 years until she died three years ago at the age of 101.

Although Tree Action Seattle claimed, on its action page for "Grandma Brooks' Cedar" (later changed to "Grandma's Cedar") that Brooks "cherished" and lovingly cared for the tree, Brooks' daughters said the opposite was true—in fact, they said, their mother "hated" the tree because it shed constantly and was so work to maintain.

The sisters, Barbara and Beverly, said no one in the neighborhood offered to pitch in as their mother, and later Beverly, struggled to keep the roof, sidewalk, and gutters clear of debris from the tree. “My mom would cut back the branches and clean it up just constantly,” Barbara recalled. “We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. Mom always said, ‘If I could afford to get rid of this tree, I would.'"

Although Tree Action and others have suggested that the property developer promised the Brooks family they would keep the tree, both the developer and the builder who bought the property say that wasn't true. Roque de Herrera, a representative for property developer Legacy Group Capital, said "there were no conversations, promises made, or agreements regarding the tree" when Legacy signed on as the site developer. Erich Armbruster, the president of Ashworth Homes, said no one brought up the tree at any point during the sale.

By 11:00 on Monday morning, the truck the protesters blocked earlier had made its way onto the property, and a crew member was busy limbing the tree from a bucket two stories above the ground. Despite the wind and rain, a handful of people watched from across the street as a pile of branches accumulated on the ground and a swirl of sawdust spun through the air.

One, Lynnwood horticulturist Gabriel Kearns, walked across the street periodically to film the workers and yell at them for removing the tree. She said her biggest issue was that developers were killing healthy trees to build "million-dollar crap" and creating "mini-deserts," with dead soil and no shade, in the city. Gesturing at an apartment building next to the property, she said, "Those apartments are going to be 100 degrees this summer—they will not have shade. ... Trees provide a livable community."

Kearns said she wanted to see Seattle tighten its tree code to make it more difficult to remove trees, perhaps by imposing a waiting period between when developers remove a tree and when they can begin development.

Another person didn't want to be quoted but told me they heard I was being paid by developers.

Michelle Tanco, who lives nearby and spent part of the previous night at the protest, told me she has no problem with new housing—"we really need new houses"—but was sad to see the tree cut down. "I spend a lot of time walking up and down with my kids, learning the names of the local trees, and this was the first one one my kids learned—western red cedar," she said.

Standing with her was Kim Butler, who lives about a mile away. She said that when she heard the tree was going to be removed, she reached out to Armbruster to see if he would agree to keep the tree if advocates could come up with a different site plan that would keep it in place without reducing the value of the final development. As PubliCola reported yesterday, the site plan proposed by Tree Action would have substantially reduced the size of one unit and eliminated two garage parking spaces, lowering the value of the site plan to less than Armbruster paid for it.

"He said he was willing to work with me… to consider keeping the tree, but he couldn’t have it interfering with his development timeline and he couldn’t have any additional expense, so it had to be net neutral," Butler said. "We were getting there, but it wasn’t ever going to be fast enough—it just wasn't going to happen."

Armbruster, who was standing on the site across the street from Butler on Monday, said that even though Butler and other advocates weren't able to come up with a workable alternative site plan on extremely short notice, he found Butler "a little different" than most of the people who have protested his project, because "she asked a question—'What would it take? Help me understand this from your perspective.'"

Butler said that even though her efforts didn't save the tree, her conversations with Armbruster gave her hope that the new development, which will include six new on-site trees and one new street tree, will be better. "That's what I'm doing to honor this tree," she said. "This line of communication that opened up is integral to having a better process in the future."

Tanco said one thing she learned during the protests is that the most effective way to ensure trees don't get cut down is for the property owner to place a protective covenant on the property. (Covenants are a tough sell because they generally lower a property's resale value.) "This brought a lot of neighbors together," Tanco said. "It's good to know more community members, so we can come together and look at other trees in the neighborhood, and reach out to the people who own them to see what they want to do and help them with that process."