The trees are gone but the questions remain

It was supposed to be a gathering to remember trees. Instead, it felt like a community mourning the loss of something much bigger.

Last Thursday evening, community members gathered outside Longfellow Elementary School to create an ofrenda for the magnificent deodar trees that had stood on the campus for generations. Some were believed to be at least 100 years old. People brought flowers, photographs and memories. A decorative banner was hung, with small paper flags for people to write their own messages. Several cars pulled over as people passed by, wanting to know what was happening.

PUSD has said the tree removals were part of its effort to address soil contamination from the Eaton Fire and comply with environmental and safety requirements. District officials have maintained that the work was necessary to ensure the campus could be safely remediated, although tree advocates continue to question whether other options could have allowed the mature trees to remain.

“The community is traumatized,” said Jessica Richards, a tree advocate who has been deeply involved in efforts to save the Longfellow trees.

Richards said the ofrenda will remain through Día de los Muertos. A bag filled with paper strips, string and markers has been left at the site so that anyone who wants to add a message can do so.

For some, the trees were part of their own childhood memories. Others talked about their children attending Longfellow. One community member brought old photographs of the school. In one photograph, dated June 1937, one of the deodars can be seen standing alongside a Canary Island pine. Looking at that photograph Thursday night made the loss feel especially real. That tree had been standing there for decades, before most of us were born.

The removal of the trees has been especially painful for advocates who had continued to push for ways to address the contaminated soil at Longfellow while keeping the mature trees.

There has never been an argument that the soil contamination resulting from the Eaton Fire should simply be ignored. The question has been whether removing these irreplaceable trees was necessary, and whether all reasonable alternatives had been seriously considered. That question became even more important after PUSD indicated that it would “take another look” at the trees and explore possible ways of saving them while addressing the soil issue.

For those who had spent months advocating for the trees, that offered hope. Then the trees came down. For many community members, that was the hardest part. They had believed there was still a chance.

Richards said Thursday’s gathering was an opportunity for people to acknowledge what had happened together.

“The community is in mourning,” she said. And it was easy to see. People stood around talking quietly. Some shared memories. Others looked through old photographs. There was sadness, but also a sense of disbelief that trees that had been part of the Longfellow landscape for so long could simply no longer be there.

The gathering also attracted people who had not been following the controversy closely. Several drivers stopped to ask what was going on. They saw the flowers and the photographs. They saw the banner. They saw people gathered around an altar for trees. And they stopped.

Sabine Hopner, a Master Certified Arborist and longtime advocate for saving PUSD’s mature trees, said she is still struggling to process the removal.

“Honestly, I am still reeling from the loss and the violence,” Hopner said. Hopner also described what she said was a frightening incident during the tree removal. According to Hopner, workers cutting down the trees aimed falling trunks toward several people who were peacefully protesting on the sidewalk.

“I am stunned by the disregard and disrespect for the mature trees, the community, the climate crisis, and public safety,” she said. Hopner also raised concerns about dust generated during the removal, saying toxic dust was kicked up and carried into the surrounding neighborhood. She described what she believes were numerous safety-code violations. Those allegations will need to be addressed and documented separately. But there was no mistaking Hopner’s feelings about the loss. And she was not alone.

‘The community’s disappointment is not going away.’

The Longfellow deodars are part of a much larger concern about the future of mature trees on PUSD campuses. Trees like these cannot be replaced overnight. A new tree can be planted. But it will take decades before it provides the same shade, cooling, habitat and presence as a tree that has been growing for a century.

And there is something else that cannot be replanted: the memories. The deodars were there in 1937. They were there when generations of Pasadena children went to school. They were part of the backdrop of people’s childhoods and family photographs. For the people who gathered Thursday night, that history mattered. So did the feeling that the trees deserved a better chance. The community’s disappointment is not going away simply because the trees are gone.

If anything, their removal has made the larger question even more urgent: What will PUSD do differently when the next mature trees are threatened?

The Longfellow ofrenda will remain through Día de los Muertos. People can add their own words, memories and messages. It is a small thing, perhaps, but it gives the community somewhere to put its grief. And for those who fought so hard to save the trees, that grief is very real.

The trees are gone, but the questions surrounding their loss, and the fight to protect the mature trees that remain, are not.