Court revokes protective order for historic Tumwater oak tree

If a tree falls in Tumwater, someone is bound to notice. Recently, the city just south of Washington state’s capital has been cut up over a 400-year-old oak tree.

The city calls the Davis Meeker Garry oak unsafe. Advocates say the historic tree needs to be preserved.

At a court hearing Friday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Anne Egeler sided with the city. She decided to remove a temporary restraining order, put in place May 24. The order was aimed at protecting the tree.

Now, the city will be able to cut down the tree. However, Egeler gave tree advocates a window to appeal.

“When asked, the city’s attorney stated that the tree may be removed as early as Monday morning. If that were to occur, that would destroy the plaintiff’s ability to appeal this decision,” Egeler said during her decision.

Advocates have vowed to appeal and have started a GoFundMe account to raise money for legal fees, flyers and an independent tree assessment.

“We will not sit still for the tree to be cut down,” said attorney Ronda Larson Kramer.

The Garry oak that sprouts up along Tumwater’s Old Highway 99 once marked a route along the Cowlitz Trail, which became a northern path of the Oregon Trail. Cowlitz tribal elders said its branches were later used to lynch Native Americans.

“The branch used for that broke off in a major ice storm in the 1990s. The massive healed-over scar from where it broke off can still be seen today on the south side of the lower part of the trunk about six feet up,” Cowlitz tribal elder Diane Riley wrote in a court declaration. “If the city carries out its plan to remove this tree, I feel like it will be another murder without due process.”

Today, the tree is home to a kestrel nest. Biologists said this tree is an important nesting spot. Female kestrels have unusual pigmentation that make it harder to blend into its surroundings, according to raptor biologist Steve Layman.

But arborists for Tumwater and Olympia have deemed the 400-year-old tree unsafe because of “substantial rot and decay” in its mainstems. Tumwater’s mayor, Debbie Sullivan, wants to chop down the city’s historic tree, worrying people could get hurt.

“The city has a clear legal duty to provide safe streets and to protect the traveling public from hazards in the right of way, including hazards created by decaying trees that may fall or drop limbs into the street, thereby injuring or killing members of the traveling public,” Sullivan wrote in court documents.

This past February, a large limb fell from the tree, Sullivan wrote.

Jeffrey Myers, a lawyer who represented Tumwater at the hearing, said the city could be held liable if a tragedy occurred because of the tree.

A public event in June will pose a risk to people, with large crowds gathering at a nearby airport, Sullivan wrote.

Advocates for the tree said it could be pruned instead of destroyed.

In 1984, environmentalist Jack Davis led an effort to save the tree from a highway improvement project. A barrier was installed to keep the tree safe.

The city added the tree to the Tumwater Register of Historic Places in 1995. All other places on the city’s historic register are buildings, a cemetery or bridges.

Garry oaks are the only oak trees native to Washington state.

At the court hearing, the attorney for the advocates noted the Davis Meeker tree’s cultural significance, but no tribes were officially represented in the case.

According to Riley, the tribe didn’t have enough time to respond to the city’s quick decision on the tree’s fate.

Advocates have until Wednesday to appeal the decision.

This isn’t the first time tribes have called trees culturally significant.

Last year, developers wanted to build homes in Seattle that would have destroyed red cedar that is important to the Snoqualmie Tribe. After the tribe stepped in, developers changed their plans and the tree is still standing.

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