Tumwater Mayor Debbie Sullivan used executive action Tuesday to have the historic Davis Meeker Garry Oak tree cut down, with the city citing its poor health and high risk for causing accidents, injury or death.
Arborists have estimated the tree to be at least 400 years old, with some believing it could be hundreds of years older. A date for the chop hasn’t been set.
Council member Joan Cathey said she thinks the mayor’s executive decision damages the council’s relationship with the community.
The historic tree is located near 7525 Old Highway 99 in Tumwater, near the Olympia Regional Airport. Its huge branches hang over the two-lane road that carries an average of 20,000 cars a day.
The May 14 decision came after an 18-inch-diameter branch fell from 50 feet high in the tree and landed partially in the southbound lane of the road in early 2023.
No one was hurt when the branch fell, but a number of professional assessments found the tree isn’t in the best health. Mayor Sullivan said she can’t face the chance of a family losing a loved one to another branch failure.
City Administrator Lisa Parks said assessments found the tree is healthy from the exterior, but there is significant internal decay that has compromised the foundation of the tree.
The city contracted with tree professional Kevin McFarland in June 2023 to perform an assessment of the tree, which included additional evaluations by a climbing arborist who looked at the upper canopy. A sonic tomography specialist performed an assessment in August. The assessments were then reviewed by a certified Master Arborist Tree Risk Assessment Qualified Municipal Specialist in October.
Parks said the risk assessments found that future failures are likely to occur and there are multiple areas of the tree where it could happen. She said the tree’s current status is that it poses a high risk to public safety.
The oak tree is on the historic northern branch of the Oregon Trail, the Cowlitz Trail. The name Meeker is tied to Ezra Meeker, a pioneer who traveled the Oregon Trail and later became the first mayor of Puyallup. According to the Tumwater Historical Register , it’s unclear if Meeker ever actually came across the tree in his travels.
There have also been accounts of the tree being a gathering place for Native Americans.
The name Davis comes from Jack Davis, an environmentalist who led a community effort in 1984 to save the tree when Old Highway 99 was being improved in the area. The right-of-way was re-routed and a barrier was installed to ensure the security of the tree, which cost $20,000 at the time.
Reasons for the chop
According to the city’s website, certified arborists found decay in several areas of the tree, including the main stem and the large scaffold branches, which makes future branch failures likely.
The tree is located next to a historic hangar, parking areas, and the highway.
Pruning the tree isn’t much of an option anymore because of the amount of internal damage. And since the tree is in a city of Tumwater right-of-way, the city could be liable for damages or injuries, potentially costing the city and taxpayers millions.
Parks said on top of the high risk to public safety, the Washington State Insurance Authority reviewed the assessments and recommended the tree come down to avoid any chance of liability.
Despite the present condition of the tree, the city’s Historic Preservation Commission voted April 18 to keep it on the Historic Register.
Parks said the city has issued a Request for Proposals from qualified contractors to remove the tree. It will require heavy equipment and a road closure of Old Highway 99.
Parks said executive staff want to recognize the tree’s historical significance and its importance to the community by finding ways to honor and commemorate the tree. The RFP has a stipulation that the tree be cut down in such a manner that it maximizes the city’s ability to use the reclaimed wood.
She said there will be a number of community engagement opportunities in the near future to discuss how to honor and commemorate the tree, whether that be through public art, a commemorative sign, or a parking area to view what will soon be a centuries-old stump.
Parks said last fall staff collected and planted acorns from the oak tree, many of which have already sprouted into saplings.
“The city has a strong history of supporting its history and commemorating and honoring its history and its trees,” Parks said. “And yet we cannot ignore our responsibility to protect people’s lives and their health and property. And so we are hoping to work together with our community to find ways to continue honoring the tree and its historical significance in a different and meaningful way.”
Mayor Debbie Sullivan said she has reached out to the Chehalis, Squaxin Island, Nisqually and Cowlitz tribes to see what historical significance the tree may have to them, and she wants to ensure they’re all included in the process moving forward.
Sullivan shared a personal story about having healthy trees in her own yard fall on her roof during a storm. She’s heard many stories of people being severely injured or killed by falling trees.
“That’s just not something that I can do. I do not want to face a family that has either lost a loved one, a family member, or had one significantly injured from this tree impacting them on a major route,” she said.
Sullivan said she knows it’s a tough decision that most people aren’t going to like. But she thinks the city can move forward on how to best honor the tree.
“The legacy does not go away,” she said. “We honor the legacy of that tree.”
The council speaks out
Council member Joan Cathey said the decision by the mayor made her feel ill.
Cathey said she feels a lot of the decision-making around the historic oak tree went on behind the scenes, and she wanted to make it clear to the public that she didn’t have a say in the decision to cut down the tree.
She said the assessments in no way said the tree is dead, and she feels the mayor is ignoring the tree’s historic designation re-affirmed just last month.
“This was not anything I had any input into. And none of us did,” she said. “We expressed an opinion at the very beginning, and it was given hope that maybe we were being heard. But I just think this is wrong. I think this is not right. I think this damages our relationship with this community.”
Cathey said the arborists said the city could take some time and do some work in specific areas, then check back in after a year or two. She said their reports included many things the city could do to give the tree a chance at survival.
“But we’re not doing that. We don’t want to do that,” she said. “Partly because insurance certainly doesn’t want us to do that.”
She cited an article about one of the greatest losses of urban trees being cities taking them down for public safety reasons.
Cathey said she was disappointed, angry and extremely sad about the decision. She said she thinks it’s one of the most dishonoring things the city has done since she’s been around.
Council member Kelly Von Holtz said she understands the need to cut down the tree for public safety reasons, but she had issues with the timeline of the tree assessment.
She said the council wasn’t given notice of any alleged issues with the tree until March of this year. She said nine months went by and so did several wind storms, and yet, the council was never given an opportunity to discuss the historic tree.
“I just hope that this is a lesson learned in managing expectations and transparency,” Von Holtz said. “And I hope that this is not something that we repeat again.”
Council member Leatta Dalhoff submitted a comment through email to The Olympian. She said the decision by the executive branch of the Tumwater government saddens her greatly.
“The Tree Board, the Historic Preservation Commision, and Council were bypassed,” she said. “Comments and concerns were not included in decision making. Local tribes were not informed or included during this process until after the decision to remove the tree was made. Since a limb fell last spring, zero efforts were made to preserve, maintain, mitigate. Removing this tree is a slap in the face of our culture, our history, and our love and preservation of nature.”
The council’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 21. An agenda has not yet been set.
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