For Immediate Release June 17, 2024
Contact:
Michelle Peterson, 360 878-7689, michellepeterson.RN@gmail.com
Ronda Larson Kramer, 360 259-3076, ronda@larsonlawpllc.com
Selected documents obtained by SDMGO through public records requests at: Public Records(Media Resources/Public Records Requests)
Arborist reports and background documents at: Arborists' Viewpoints
Facebook page: Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak
Hashtag: #tumwateroak #savethetree
City Arborist’s Email Says Historic Oak Tree Not High Risk
TUMWATER--In what has become the City of Tumwater’s most contentious issue over trees in memory, the city’s arborist, Kevin McFarland, contradicted his public report in an internal city email, writing that the Davis Meeker oak next to the Olympia Airport was not a high risk.
“This is appalling,” said Michelle Peterson, a lifelong Tumwater-Olympia resident, of McFarland’s internal email. “If you look at the timeline, the logical conclusion you draw is that there was some kind of internal pressure on him to change his opinion to align with someone else’s goal to remove the tree.”
In a June 28, 2023 email obtained by Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak, McFarland wrote that “The risk assessment is not complete, but it is my opinion that the tree does not pose a extreme or high risk….”
McFarland went on to write that the tree needed additional assessment. As a result, the city hired Tree Solutions to do an inspection. After its inspection, Tree Solutions agreed the tree was not high risk.
“It is my opinion that this tree should be managed as a veteran tree . . . If this tree is retained, it should be reassessed with sonic tomography in five years,” said Tyler Bunton, the arborist from Tree Solutions in a memo dated September 23, 2023.
“The evidence doesn’t support his conclusion,” said Peterson. “How can Mr. McFarland say the tree needs to be removed when the follow-up assessment said the tree merely needs pruning?”
Other arborists criticized the city arborist’s assessment as being flawed and lacking thoroughness. “It’s like if this tree was your grandma, and someone did an X-ray of her foot and tapped on her head and said, ‘Well she’s generally healthy, but she has diabetes, so we should just put her down. Don’t worry, I spent a few hours checking her out. I don’t need to send off any lab work.’ You would be furious,” said Ray Gleason, a professional arborist. “Because of the historical importance of this tree, at a minimum sonic tomography should have been done on the entire canopy, not just the base,” he said.
“The city arborist’s report contains a litany of errors,” said old-growth and heritage tree specialist Beowulf Brower. “It also ignores good science and technology in favor of inaccurate and rudimentary methods. Oak trees handle pathogens well. They are some of the most durable and longest living hardwoods in our region.”
Gleason said, “Structurally, the tree shows very good contents, in both the branches and in the trunk. There is no visible mycelium nor staining that validates the city's statement of decay.”
Professional arborist Jesse Brighten said “The city’s own follow-up assessment by Tree Solutions said that pruning would be sufficient. Yet the city arborist overrode this for no reason and concluded that removal was the only option. That is unconscionable for a tree of such importance.”
Mayor Sullivan overrode the Historic Preservation Commission’s refusal to remove the tree from the Tumwater Historic Register, claiming that she had emergency authority to skip obtaining a required waiver for taking down the tree. She then got bids for the removal without opportunity for public review or comment and she went to court to remove a temporary restraining order obtained by Save the Davis Meeker Garry Oak (SDMGO) citizens group.
At a city council meeting on June 4 that lasted four hours due to the high number of people who came to give public testimony in support of the tree, the mayor bowed to public pressure and pressure from the council and agreed to have the tree assessed again.
As for who would perform the assessment, the mayor said at the council meeting that she does “not want any of the arborists or anyone who has been involved in this in any way shape or form, but somebody totally outside the scope of this who's … totally independent from all of the rhetoric and all the other things and all of the preconceived notions . . . .”
Then on June 12, before the follow-up assessment had been done, Sullivan told the Olympian, “It’s an historic place and will stay an historic place, it just won’t have the tree standing there.”
SDMGO spokesperson Peterson said of the mayor’s June 12 statement, “She is saying this before the follow-up assessment has even been done. It’s clear she plans to remove the tree regardless. Like she did with the first assessment, it appears the mayor is going to dictate the outcome of the second assessment,” said Peterson.
SDMGO plans to raise enough money to hire an environmental law attorney to stop the mayor’s plans to cut down the tree.
SDMGO asks citizens to donate to the legal fund and contact the city council by emailing council@ci.tumwater.wa.us to ask them to pass an emergency ordinance that requires the mayor to first obtain (1) a thorough risk assessment, (2) a permit from the state archaeology department, (3) a waiver from the historic commission, and (4) consensus of three arborists who say removal is necessary.
The Davis Meeker Garry Oak is located on the old Cowlitz Trail, which was used for millennia by indigenous peoples and later by settlers on what became a northern branch of the Oregon Trail. The tree was a landmark for travelers.
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