||| FROM B. SADIE BAILEY |||
I’m writing because I was told that you three are the only people who can postpone or stop any tree removal on the Prune Alley Road Project. The low income seniors and disabled residents of Longhouse Apartments don’t own the building. They had no voice, nor were they invited to the table to share how vital the trees and shrubs sheltering and shading their outdoor seating area are to their well being. As there are multiple creative solutions to any problem, it seems likely that there are solutions that weren’t considered in the designing of the Plans.
There are many good reasons to delay cutting down any trees or shrubs. Here are several; #3 is Federal Law that prevents cutting now.
- Cutting now would remove the Longhouse residents’ shaded, cool seating area which is their only outdoor gathering place and visual buffer from the noise and dust; their little oasis of serenity and beauty. Please don’t leave these poor people baking in full sun this summer! Where would they sit?
- Please consider how long it takes to recreate this kind of a shaded seating for Longhouse residents. Yes, trees will be planted; but how long will it take them to grow into what’s already beautiful and works well now? 20 years? More? The cypress trees are perfect for their small size and effective year-round screening and shade. The dark leaved plums add beauty and color. All are bird nesting havens.
- The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 protects 1,000+ species of birds. It’s nesting season. To cut now means certain death for eggs and nestlings not yet fledged. Please respect the Law. Postpone cutting til Fall, and only as a last resort. These birds are protected: https://www.fws.gov/media/
list-birds-protected- migratory-bird-treaty-act-2020 - This road improvement plan is a 180 degree turn from our original SubArea Plan Vision (1986) of a walking village. I’m sure that sidewalks will help make walking more appealing and safe, but without mature trees, what will feed our souls and provide living shade and shelter? We were supposed to preserve natural features, rural character, and quality of life. We need wildlife corridors in our town and ways for wildlife to move between places of more density to places of less dense development. We “townies” have as much need of these things as our more rural neighbors – so do our wildlife. I pick up road kill in town on many days. One solution: https://www.
nationalgeographic.org/ article/wildlife-crossings/ - No answers were provided when people asked polite, respectful questions or shared concerns. We love our town. We want to trust that you will see it as we do, and explore options with us, even this late in the game. We request audience. We believe satisfactory alternatives can and should be explored.
Please deliver a notebook of all 502 pages of the Project to Orcas Public Library so that people can see them in person; something that should be a matter of course in the beginning of any project of this size and scope.
Some seniors and young people got together a petition on Friday, and took it to Saturday Market. We spent time talking with people in depth about what these trees mean to the residents of Longhouse, and to us. When they were shown pictures of the seating area, many locals said, “I know that place. The residents there use it a lot.” Tourists signed. They wanted to see the Longhouse trees preserved; they delighted in the still-green ambiance of our little town.
We’re told an ADA-compliant sidewalk for wheelchair access will go in, which we need and welcome. There may be electric wires under those trees; can’t wires be moved? For the ADA compliant sidewalk, were other experts consulted to see about alternative routes for those sidewalks? It seems sidewalks would go in last, with fall planting. Why can’t we talk with experts on other options?
Can we for once have something for the Commons? It’s not too late to have an outcome where all feel respected and it’s a win for something collaborative and beautiful. Please postpone all tree removal and cutting until Fall. Meet with concerned citizens to formulate some win-win outcomes that honor the wishes of our community and tourists alike.
**If you are reading theOrcasonian for free, thank your fellow islanders. If you would like to support theOrcasonian CLICK HERE to set your modestly-priced, voluntary subscription. Otherwise, no worries; we’re happy to share with you.**
The library park next door to the longhouse is used a lot by the tenants !
True, Pierrette, but it is not their outdoor seating area and their area there is wheelchair access and used by many of the tenants because it is shaded.
It certainly appears to me that when developers and county bureaucrats decide that they will make Eastsound according to their plan for living, the main focus is always money, and how much the tourists will bring in. They disregard the human element of a town and what makes a home for the residents, and the birds and the mammals of that town. They are focused on what will create more money, or more tourism, without true regard for Nature Herself. They seem to forget that Nature is the reason that visitors come to this beautiful island, and over the recent years the Natural World, that Beauty, that Peacefulness, that it brings to those visitors has been torn apart, torn down, abused, and the precious birds have flown away. I for one, am fed up with greedy, self-serving, non-Nature serving, so-called planners who are just bureaucrats. Something that never is considered in the planning department is the International Migratory Bird Species Act to which the United States is a signatory. I am sure that they don’t consider THAT international law, to which every country is bound to protect migratory bird species. We have thousands of migratory birds coming through here, every year. I realize that for the last thirty or more years, there as been on Orcas Island a feeding frenzy by the greedy, without regard for the Nature of this Sacred Island, and ALL of her inhabitants and Her migrating birds. Just remember that for every tree you take town, eventually, Eastsound will be denuded of trees. People will get tired of just seeing buildings. The preciousness of Orcas Island, including its’ town, is so dear to many people, because it has had the flavor of a Rural Town.
Sometimes, I see the eventual ruination of Eastsound very clearly, and it is on the backs of those individuals, and they know who they are, who see Eastsound as Dollar Signs for them. Remember: For those who profit from the Destruction of Nature, that your stay on our Beautiful Planet is just temporary, to leave for your posterity what will eventually become a Garbage Heap is just plain Money-Grubbing. Bless your Cold Hard Hearts, Spirit Eagle. – AHO-Mataquasi, (ALL MY RELATIONS).
Thanks so very much to Spirit Eagle for your profound and heartfelt letter. I’m with you 100%.
Well said, Spirit Eagle. It’s hard not to feel alternating despair and disgust that our whole system and way of being is still the colonizer “owner” way that tramples on Nature for the take and take..How much is enough?
It’s very hard to watch the disconnect from Nature, the greed that must come from such internal emptiness or lack – and the pain and injury it causes all the other humans, creatures and plants. To watch the bird population and pollinator population plummet, and watch apologists for destruction deny there’s a connection with what they are destroying and how that is going to impact us not just here but globally, is nauseating and horrifying.
Thank you for your heartfelt and truthful letter. I had sent this letter to the three people above mentioned. No response so far.
We need to increase our respect for the natural elements of our home now. Thank you to those who speak up for the trees and the other living beings with whom we share this planet.