For Immediate Release May 28, 2024
Documents at Media Releases | Davis-Meeker Oak (davis-meeker-oak.org)
Hashtag: #tumwateroak
Group to Urge City Council Tonight to Preserve Tumwater Oak
A group of citizens will appear at a Tumwater City Council meeting tonight at 6 p.m., asking the council to override Mayor Debbie Sullivan’s administrative decision to cut down a 400-year-old Garry oak tree. The tree is located on the historic Cowlitz Trail, used for millennia by indigenous nations. Later the tree was a landmark on the trail when white settlers used it as a branch of the Oregon Trail. The oak is listed in the Tumwater Register of Historic Places and is a protected species under Washington state law.
“The issue is the council members' inaction to save this tree,” said Michelle Peterson of Tumwater and a member of Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak “My mayor shouldn't steamroll them. Last week, the Bellingham City Council enacted measures to protect landmark trees. This week, we should do the same.”
Peterson and the group’s attorney Ronda Larson Kramer will request that the council pass a motion to turn the meeting from a workshop to an emergency meeting and to adopt a measure identical to one recently passed in Bellingham that protects heritage trees. A council workshop does not allow voting and action on issues as does a regular or emergency meeting.
“The mayor is an administrator, not a legislator,” said Larson Kramer. “She has overreached in strong arming the council and ignoring the Historic Preservation Commission.”
There is currently a temporary court order restraining Mayor Sullivan and the city from cutting the tree, issued Friday by Judge Sharonda Amamilo of Thurston County Superior Court.It has since been discovered that a mating pair of kestrels is nesting in the tree and that the female is leucistic or white, an uncommon genetic variation.
“If there are nestlings or viable eggs in the tree, then cutting it down constitutes a ‘taking’ and is a violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,” said Steve Ellis, a bird educator and writer.
The group is organizing supporters to appear at the city council’s scheduled workshop meeting on Tuesday May 28 at 6 p.m. at the Tumwater Fire Department Headquarters, EOC, 311 Israel Rd. SW, Tumwater, WA 98501 or by Zoom from the city’s website.
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