A developer felled a grove of trees along 5th Ave NE near NE 123rd. The site is not pretty at all. They did not have a permit and were told to cease tree removal by the Department of Planning and Development.
Jonah Spangenthal-Lee has more in the SLOG here.
The owner of this property did not have his construction permit approved or a permit to proceed with any tree cutting.
He owns an additional 4 lots north of this lot that was clearcut. When I talked with him, his intentions seem to be to take all the trees out. He claimed the city said it was OK.
Seattle has a terribly weak tree protection ordinance that currently only deals with what are known as exceptional trees. The problem is that this covers only a tiny percentage of trees in Seattle.
Contact Mayor Nickels and the Seattle City Council and urge them to revise and pass a strong tree protection ordinance that protects habitat and tree groves. Ask that it include measures to require owners to build within the existing environment and protect as many trees as possible.
With Seattle’s tree canopy decreasing from 40% in 1972 to only 18% today, we are continuing to lose trees to this type of clearcutting mentality that happened at this site at 5th Ave NE.
We do have a choice of what type of future we want for Seattle. But you must communicate your concerns to the Mayor and City Council urging them to act now to prevent further unnecessary tree loss in Seattle.