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Citizens group wins partial victory for oak tree

  • Sep 8, 2024

For Immediate Release                                                                      8 September 2024

 

Contact:

 

Michelle Peterson, 360 878-7689, michellepeterson.RN@gmail.com

Ronda Larson Kramer, 360 259-3076, ronda@larsonlawpllc.com

 

Reports and background documents under Media Resources  Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak 

 

Information Links: http://linktr.ee/TumwaterOak

 

 

 

Citizens group wins partial victory for oak tree

DATELINE— TUMWATER, WA

Members of a citizens group fighting to save a healthy 400-year-old Garry oak in Tumwater breathed a sigh of relief on Friday, September 6, as Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Egeler ruled mostly in the group's favor.


Staff for Tumwater mayor Debbie Sullivan first alerted the public on February 12 that the Davis Meeker oak would potentially be removed. Months of litigation began on May 24, 2024, when Judge Sharonda Amamilo granted the citizens group a temporary restraining order. Judge Egeler dissolved the TRO on May 31, 2024. The case is now on appeal.


At the hearing on Friday, the citizens group took advantage of a little-known rule on appeal whereby a party can stop a second party from taking action if the first party pays a bond. The first party then gets an automatic stay.


The rule says that even though the case is on appeal, the superior court judge gets to decide the bond amount initially. As a result, the citizens group filed a motion asking Judge Egeler to set the bond at $200. By contrast, the mayor wanted the judge to set the bond at over $10 million, which far exceeded what the group could afford. The judge set it at $10,000.


The mayor also filed a motion asking the judge to award the mayor over $13,000 in legal fees against the group. Judge Egeler denied that motion entirely.


“This is doable,” said the group’s spokeswoman Michelle Peterson. The group will now pay the refundable $10,000 to the court in full.  


“My guess is on Friday the judge realized her original ruling dissolving the TRO in May had been based on multiple misleading statements by the mayor and by the mayor’s attorney,” said Ronda Larson Kramer, one of the attorneys representing Save the Davis-Meeker Garry Oak. "We worked pretty hard over the past two weeks to call those out to the court.”


Larson Kramer said the mayor’s attorney also made misleading statements in his latest briefing. For example, he wrote that the citizens group knew well in advance that the mayor was planning to have the tree cut down but waited until the last minute to file for a temporary restraining order.  


“Luckily, I had great evidence to pull out of my back pocket,” said Larson Kramer. “It was an email I happened to receive when Councilwoman Leatta Dahlhoff had emailed the mayor on Thursday afternoon, May 23rd, and had copied me. She was asking whether the mayor needed the council’s approval for a budget amendment before the tree was cut down," she said.


Larson Kramer said the fact the councilwoman was asking the mayor this question proved that neither the citizens group nor the council knew if the mayor could act independently or not. "Five hours later, I learned at 9 pm that somebody had tipped off one of our group's members about the mayor's plans to cut down the tree that weekend. I filed for a temporary restraining order the next morning,” said Larson Kramer.


She also mentioned that Friday’s favorable ruling by the judge was probably due in large part to the group's new attorney, Bryan Telegin. “His willingness to take on this case was significant for us,” said Larson Kramer, who has been the attorney on the case since the start. “Not only is it like getting a fresh horse on the Pony Express, but he has the needed experience in environmental law that I don’t have,” she said.


To raise money for legal expenses, the citizens group is holding a fundraiser on Sunday and another one on September 26 and is accepting tax deductible donations on its website.


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Photo credit: Timothy Duncan, Tumwater.


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One of the yard signs the group had made. Photo credit: Ronda Larson Kramer, Olympia.

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Judge to Decide If Tumwater Oak Can Get an Automatic Stay

  • Sep 2, 2024

For Immediate Release                                                                      2 September 2024

 

Contact:

 

Michelle Peterson, 360 878-7689, michellepeterson.RN@gmail.com

Ronda Larson Kramer, 360 259-3076, ronda@larsonlawpllc.com

 

Reports and background documents under Media Resources  Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak 

 

Information Links: http://linktr.ee/TumwaterOak

 

 

 

Judge to Decide If Tumwater Oak Can Get an Automatic Stay


DATELINE— TUMWATER, WA


In the fight to save one of the most culturally valued trees in Washington state, the citizen action group that sued the city of Tumwater readies for another court battle involving a 400-year-old Garry oak tree called the Davis Meeker oak.  


Both sides have filed competing motions. “The mayor filed a motion to try to make us pay $13,000 of her legal fees,” said Ronda Larson Kramer, one of the attorneys for the group. “And we filed a motion to try to get an automatic stay of the mayor’s plans to cut down the tree—a stay that would last for the duration of our appeal.”  


The Attorney General’s Office wrote a lengthy letter to the mayor in July telling her that she has to get a permit from the state Department of Archaeology if she wants to do anything to the tree.


The citizen action group discovered through a public records request that soon after the mayor received that letter, her attorney began researching what the monetary and criminal penalties would be for violating the permit requirement.


“When I saw that, it sent chills down my spine,” said Michelle Peterson, the group’s spokesperson. “It suggests that even the law might not be enough to save the tree from the mayor’s determination to cut it down.”


Ray Gleason, a certified arborist who has been working for decades to keep the tree safe said, “Ironically, research by one of the most well-respected tree physicists in the world shows that even strongly hollowed trees can be safer than young intact trees without any defects." Gleason was referring to research by Frank Rinn, a German physicist and tree specialist who invented the Resistograph, which is used worldwide to assess decay in trees. “That research shows that oftentimes, the older a tree gets, the sturdier it gets. But most people think it’s the opposite.”


The City of Tumwater’s arborist issued a report in 2023 concluding that the Davis Meeker oak should be cut down. A company called Tree Solutions helped the city's arborist with that assessment but disagreed so strongly with his conclusion that the company's owner, board certified master arborist Scott Baker, wrote an email to the assistant city attorney to say that the final report was “an embarrassment to any knowledgeable arborist.”


Gleason said, "Scott Baker is one of the fathers of modern-day tree risk assessment methodology. That makes his criticism all the more significant."


The mayor bowed to public pressure on June 4th and promised to get a second assessment. The city has contracted with a new company but the second assessment has yet to be performed.


Meanwhile, an independent risk assessment was done by Paul Dubois of Keyport, Washington, who has 40 years of experience, much of that with oak trees. He concluded that the Davis Meeker oak poses only a moderate risk and it can be made low risk with simple pruning and cabling.


The citizen action group is holding a fundraiser on Sunday and another one on Thursday, September 26, to raise money for legal expenses. Anyone wishing to watch the court hearing on Friday at 9:00 a.m. can do so on Zoom or in person.

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City Installs Warning Signs at the Tree

  • Aug 4, 2024

For Immediate Release                                                                      4 August 2024

 

Contact:

Michelle Peterson, 360 878-7689, michellepeterson.RN@gmail.com

Ronda Larson Kramer, 360 259-3076, ronda@larsonlawpllc.com

 

Reports and background documents under Media Resources  Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak 

 

 

 

City of Tumwater Reduces Speed Limit Under the Davis Meeker Oak


DATELINE— TUMWATER, WA

Over the weekend, the City of Tumwater posted street signs on Old Highway 99 at the controversial Davis Meeker oak tree, reducing the speed limit to 30 miles per hour and warning that limbs may fall.  


Michelle Peterson, spokesperson for a citizen activist group working to stop the mayor from cutting down the tree, said the group welcomed this move. “We hope this signals a change by the mayor toward mitigation and away from cutting down the tree,” she said. “Changing surrounding infrastructure rather than removing the tree is a win-win for the community and the mayor.”


Musician Dana Lyons will hold a CD release party on August 16 at which the group, Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak, will have a silent auction with 20 two-year-old seedlings from the tree to raise money for legal fees.


The controversy surrounding the tree stems from a branch that dropped over a year ago on May 16, 2023. A photo taken by city workers immediately after it dropped shows the branch tips extending slightly into the roadway, while the majority of the branch fell directly under the tree.


The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation has told the city that it is legally prohibited from cutting down the tree without a permit. The Nisqually Tribe has also asked the city not to cut down the tree until the tribe has had an opportunity to review the situation.


Many view the tree as a critical piece of Tumwater’s pioneer history. It stood beside an ancient Native American trade route called the Cowlitz Trail, which later became a spur of the Oregon Trail.


Oral history of pioneer descendants indicates the tree may have been the go-to camping spot for newly arrived settlers. James Thomas is writing an article for the Thurston County Historical Journal on his ancestor T.J. Harper, who came west with Tumwater Pioneer Ezra Meeker. Meeker is the pioneer after whom the Davis Meeker oak was named.  


Thomas relates how Tumwater settlers George and Isabella Bush, whose farm was near the Davis Meeker oak, told the Meeker party to camp under the tree. “Mr. Bush suggested that they camp under the giant oak tree on unclaimed land just northwest of his home.  He said the surrounding prairie would provide browse for the livestock and a small lake, just to the east, would be a convenient place to water the stock.  My family believes that the Davis-Meeker oak, the largest in the area, is the one they camped under.”


Thomas said, “I would not be surprised if Mr. Bush often directed other new arrivals to camp at the oak tree because of the convenience of nearby water and food for livestock.” 


The Davis Meeker oak seedlings that will be auctioned off on August 16 were from acorns collected and grown by Burnt Ridge Nursery and Orchards.






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