Group Suing Mayor over Oak Tree Receives Partial Win

DATELINE— TUMWATER, WA

Recently, the Court of Appeals dealt Tumwater Mayor Debbie Sullivan a blow by rejecting her request to dismiss an appeal by a citizens group suing her to save an historic 400-year-old oak tree. The mayor had argued that the appeal was moot because the mayor had agreed on June 4th to get a second risk assessment of the tree. The first risk assessment, which the mayor cited in her original decision to remove the tree, has been widely criticized by arborists and community members alike as deeply flawed.

The Court of Appeals rejected the mayor’s notion that the appeal was moot. It noted that the mayor continues to claim she is free to cut down the tree based on the first risk assessment regardless of the outcome of the second risk assessment.

According to public records requests, between June and the end of October 2024, the mayor’s efforts to remove the tree have cost the city $66,000 in attorney fees and almost $50,000 for a second risk assessment. On November 19, 2024, the mayor announced publicly that she had decided not to run for re-election.

The mayor orders oak seedlings pulled up

Meanwhile, beneath the tree several Garry oak seedlings had sprouted from the tree’s acorns this year. The citizens group asked that the city let the oak seedlings live. Ronda Larson Kramer, one of the attorneys for the group, wrote to city councilmembers in an email dated November 17, 2024:

[The tree] will be the first look at the City of Tumwater that many people will get when visitors start arriving as part of the 20,000 passengers per month that the Port of Olympia is expecting by 2040 at the Olympia Airport. … We suggest management going forward that restores some Garry oak savannah characteristics at the base of the tree …. This would include allowing the oak seedlings currently growing at the base of the tree inside the fence around the tree to mature. This will enable the roots of the seedlings to meld with the roots of the Davis Meeker oak in a process called inosculation, which will result in more energy being provided to the Davis Meeker oak over time.

It appears that when the mayor found out, she immediately told city staff to pull the seedlings up. Eight days later this was done. She apparently made her request to staff verbally because the citizens group’s public records request for documentation produced nothing.

Tanya Nozawa, a member of the Tumwater Tree Board, then asked the city to explain. “I was told that the oaks were pulled up because they were growing next to the road,” said Nozawa.

Earlier this year, staff at the city had colluded on how to evade Tumwater’s critical areas ordinances protecting Garry oak trees. In anticipation of the mayor having the Davis Meeker oak cut down, Tumwater Parks and Recreation Director Chuck Denney wrote in an email dated March 21, 2024, “[S]uckers will sprout quickly from the stump if it is not cut/ground into the dirt. That’ll create a situation where we are re-growing the Davis/Meeker Oak and all the protections that come w/it.”  

Because the tree is an archaeological resource, grinding the stump is illegal without a permit from the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation. The mayor has not applied for a permit to grind the stump, let alone a permit to remove the tree. (She claims in her legal briefing that the tree is not an archaeological object and therefore, she does not need a permit).

Mike Matlock, Community Development Director for the city, wrote in an email dated February 13, 2024, “[W]e would have to plant 250 trees as part of our environmental mitigation for the removal of the tree.” A few days later, he wrote, “I think we might have another solution to mitigate at a far lesser value than 250:1. We can talk further when we meet.”

Michelle Peterson, spokesperson for the citizens group, said, “We’re appalled by the city’s apparent focus on ridding the city of Garry oaks just because its own ordinances protect them and make it slightly harder to do whatever the city wants with its roads.”

Garry oak communities are now one of North America's most imperiled vegetation types, and Garry oak ecosystems have been identified by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) as a habitat that is critically imperiled and at risk of extinction. As much as 99% of the native prairie oak ecosystem has been lost due to development, economic activity, the growth of invasive species such as ivy, and constantly advancing conifer trees. WDFW has put out a best management practices guide for managing Garry oak.

The second risk assessment proceeds

Recently, arborists did work as part of the second risk assessment. On December 13, 2024, arborists air excavated the roots of the historic oak tree. More than two feet of dirt had been piled up around the tree in the past above the original grade. Burying roots like this can encourage fungal pathogens. The purpose of air excavation is to determine if a fungal pathogen is present in the roots. The arborists applied for and were granted a permit to do this work from the Washington Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.  

Removing compacted soil piled around a tree can have huge benefits, as was discovered by accident when a large oak tree in England was pulled up by a hurricane and set back down again decades ago.

The Davis Meeker Garry Oak is located at 7527 Old Highway 99, Tumwater, Washington.

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Garry oak seedling growing at the base of the Davis Meeker oak. Photo credit: Tanya Nozawa, September 27, 2024.

Place where the mayor's employee pulled up the oak seedling on November 25, 2024, shortly after the citizens group notified the city council of its existence and asked that it be preserved. Photo credit: Tanya Nozawa, December 1, 2024.

Garry oak seedlings growing at the base of the Davis Meeker oak. Photo credit: Pam Hanson, July 17, 2024.

Place where the mayor's employee pulled up the oak seedlings on November 25, 2024, shortly after the citizens group notified the city council of their existence and asked that they be preserved.  Photo credit: Ronda Larson Kramer, December 9, 2024.

Using an air excavator, arborists from Todd Prager & Associates remove fill dirt piled onto the roots decades ago. They removed the dirt to check for fungal pathogens as part of the second risk assessment.  Photo and video credit: Tanya Nozawa.