Tree Blog

Illegal Tree Cutting: Chipping away at our Neighborhood Cohesion
By Matthew Mega, Conservation Director, Seattle Audubon

Welcome to the first installment of the Seattle reLeaf blog about trees in our fine City of Seattle. I am honored to be able to kick off this discussion. You might guess that as the first blogger and one who works for Seattle Audubon, I might begin the discussion by drawing a connection to trees and bird survival. Well, that story as interesting, and as important as it is, needs to wait. Today I want to blog about respect. And, no not respect for mature trees in and of themselves (although I do respect them), but respect for our neighbors and neighborhoods. We have a growing problem in our city where people feel empowered to go onto public property and cut down trees for their own personal gain. In July 2006, City arborist Nolan Rundquist was interviewed by Pacific Publishing and stated that he responds to 2 or 3 illegal tree cutting violations a week, all on public property. Let me restate, this is illegal tree cutting on public property. Think about, these actions are as premeditated as you can find. Someone needs to plan out how and when to enter public property (usually at night), they have to find a tree company willing (or unsuspecting) to become an accomplice and they have to be willing to lie to the face of the police officer investigating the claim. This is exactly the type of person I want living in my neighborhood, how about you?

The bottom-line is these premeditated actions erode our neighborhoods. As someone who is in constant contact with good and caring people trying to make a difference, it is really quite disconcerting. Every day I meet people willing to give up their free time to remove ivy, plant trees, clean up graffiti and engage in any variety of neighborhood improvement projects. These people undertake those efforts because they feel like they are making a difference and this positive difference is what makes great neighborhoods. It is amazing that a few selfish homeowners can completely destroy the good intentions of others. My personal feeling is that we need to prosecute these actions not only because of the illegal loss of trees, but to protect our public property rights and neighborhood cohesion. The City of Seattle needs to take a stand, find the perpetrators and prosecute them.

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