top of page

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.

#####



 

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.






#####

 

American Kestrels Fledge from the Davis Meeker Oak

  • Jul 26, 2024



For Immediate Release                                                                      26 July 2024

 

Contact:

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

Ronda Larson Kramer, 360-259-3076, rlarsonkramer@gmail.com

 

Reports and background documents under Media Resources  www.TumwaterOak.org 

 

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

Kestrel photos and videos

 

 

 

American Kestrels Fledge from the Davis Meeker Oak


DATELINE— TUMWATER, WA

Three kestrel chicks are about to fledge from the nest cavity in the Davis Meeker oak, a tree that has been at the center of one of the biggest tree controversies in Tumwater’s history. If Tumwater mayor Debbie Sullivan had succeeded in her plan to cut the tree down in May, the three chicks would not have survived.


On June 7, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service sent the city a letter stating, “It has come to our attention that the City of Tumwater, without a permit, intends to knowingly violate federal wildlife law by the removal” of the oak tree. The letter explained that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act does not allow cutting a tree down without a permit if the tree contains nesting migratory birds.


Professional tree risk assessment specialist Beowulf Browers noted in a legal declaration on July 2 that the City of Tumwater’s arborist had failed in his duty of care and diligence by neglecting “to recommend a biological survey of the tree to protect wildlife critical habitat.”


Steve Layman is a raptor biologist who visited the tree and saw the kestrel parents.  He said in a legal declaration that kestrels use nest cavities year after year, down through the generations. He explained that the availability of vacant holes is waning as old trees disappear from the landscape.


According to a March 31, 2019, article on All About Birds by Lauren Chambliss, kestrels nest in holes, and the scarcity of trees old enough to contain nest cavities is likely one cause in the population decline of our smallest falcon. The article documents data showing declines nearing 50 percent in American kestrel populations in North America.


An article in the New York Times by Catrin Einhorn on June 5, 2023, explains how kestrels are still common but their population numbers are declining every year, in contrast to other raptors such as bald eagles and peregrine falcons who have largely recovered after the elimination of DDT in the 1970s. Scientists are racing to learn more about where the birds might be having trouble.


“The future of all wildlife is in proximity to people,” said raptor biologist Layman. In his view, the Davis Meeker oak presents an opportunity: “Schoolchildren could be brought there and taught about ecology and could take its acorns and plant them in their yards and in parks.”


Whether the tree will remain standing remains unclear, however. The citizen group Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak (SDMGO) is raising funds to hire an environmental attorney to try and save it. “The mayor says she wants another arborist to assess the tree. But her most recent actions reflect anything but a desire for objectivity,” said SDMGO spokesperson Michelle Peterson.


At a June 4 city council meeting, the mayor responded to pressure from citizens and council members and agreed to get a second assessment, after the city arborist’s first risk assessment was roundly criticized. Several weeks later, at the council meeting on July 16, between 1:01:00 to 1:05:25 in the recording, the mayor rebuffed requests by Councilmembers Kelly Von Holz and Joan Cathey to allow transparency during the interviews of the arborists applying to conduct the follow-up assessment.  


Von Holz and Cathey suggested that the mayor allow members of the Tumwater Tree Board and Tumwater Historical Commission to be on the interview panel. The mayor declined. Instead, the panel will consist solely of the mayor, City Administrator Lisa Parks, and City Attorney Karen Kirkpatrick.


“The documents we obtained through public records requests demonstrate that these three people, more than anyone else in the city, have been behind the flawed process threatening the oak tree for the past year,” SDMGO spokesperson Peterson said. “By barring anyone else from the interview room, they are continuing the same pattern of secrecy. It’s anti-democratic,” she said.  



Photos and videos by Melinda Wood of Olympia, July 10, 2024


#####

 
2356
bottom of page