Home › Forums › West Seattle Rants & Raves › RANT: illegal tree hacking?
- This topic is empty.
-
AuthorPosts
-
May 24, 2011 at 11:59 pm #599038
B-squaredParticipantWhere do you report this kind of thing? I saw this last week at the top edge of Me-Kwa-Mooks. looks to be the work of some view-weasel. Probably happened a month ago and doesn’t look like they are done. It’s frustrating and sad (even the dog is sad). Besides damaging the trees, it is a blatant disrespect for a public area, not to mention the volunteer hours spent at that park trying to protect the tree canopy from invasives. Do you call the cops when you hear a chainsaw in a public park?
May 25, 2011 at 12:05 am #724944
anonymeParticipantI would call the cops if I heard a chainsaw, as well as getting up there and photographing the scumbags. I guess there’s a chance that some cutting might be legal, but this doesn’t sound like one of those times. Report this to police as well as the City arborist. You can also call Plant Amnesty for advice on how to proceed; they may want to get involved.
May 25, 2011 at 1:27 am #724945
KevinParticipantSame thing appears to have happened on Marine View Drive just south of Endolyne Joes restaurant. The perps are long gone, But there is a very noticeable lack of tree cover in the past month or so, and some homes up above that are probably quite proud of themselves that they have just improved their view of the sound.
May 25, 2011 at 5:30 am #724946
WSBKeymasterI was flagged to this and am working on a story. (Or maybe you were the person who sent the note? I don’t know everybody’s “real names” and this one came in under a real name) – we have done a fair # of illegal-tree-cutting stories in recent months.
May 25, 2011 at 2:51 pm #724947
B-squaredParticipantThis is my first mention of this. As someone who regularly volunteers at Lincoln park natural areas, this kind of thing infuriates me, as i know the same kind of work is being done at Me-Kwa-Mooks. it’s a lot of work holding the ivy back to keep those trees healthy. That someone feels entitled to damage them is repugnant.
May 25, 2011 at 6:38 pm #724948
DPMemberB-squared: TL sends you and anonyme good tree karma.
Â
And curses to all those who hurt the forest. May their “view” henceforth turn forever inward, and may they not like what they see . . .
Â
  Â
May 25, 2011 at 7:41 pm #724949
I WonderMemberYou can call the Dept of Planning and Development Complaint hot line to file a complaint “if the violation can be observed only for a short period of time (for example, a tree being cut”. 206-615-0808.
http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/Compliance/Filing_a_Complaint/default.asp
May 25, 2011 at 10:43 pm #724950
B-squaredParticipantThanks DP:)
And to “I wonder”, that sounds like a good idea. Thanks for pointing it out:)
May 26, 2011 at 1:37 pm #724951
ATNMemberI noticed this tree topping in Me Kwa Mooks several weeks ago. I immediately called the city arborist and left a voice message. He has not returned my call.
I checked Seattle GIS and this tree topping occurred within the park boundary and within an ECA Steep Slope zone.
May 26, 2011 at 5:22 pm #724952
dbseaMemberIf I were in the mayor’s office, and I’m not, I’d seriously consider assigning someone (an intern possibly, or good old volunteer citizen) to read through community blogs such as this. The better to respond to community concerns, assist residents with various matters such as this tree issue. Or traffic issues etc. At the very least to be more in touch with the peeps.
May 26, 2011 at 5:27 pm #724953
I WonderMemberNo, the people need to be in touch with the mayor. Its our responsibility to be the ears and eyes and use the tools provided. There is a hotline number with a person manning it. I know b/c I used it two weeks ago. That samr day, an inspector was out. There’s been a cutback in weeds and vegetation inspections, but they are pretty fast about slope and tree issues.
May 26, 2011 at 8:56 pm #724954
DPMemberIf I were in the mayor’s office, and I’m not, I’d seriously consider assigning someone (an intern possibly, or good old volunteer citizen) to read through community blogs such as this.
—Capital idea, dbsea. I would love to see an official City rep drop in here from time to time.
I think this would be within the purview of Dept. of Neighborhoods, since Blogs are generally neighborhood based. Wanna get together with me and inquire about/suggest this to them? (It always carries more weight when two or more people call.) If so, drop me a line.
–David
May 26, 2011 at 9:15 pm #724955
maplesyrupParticipantSeems like a logical place to begin an investigation would be the houses directly behind the trees.
If the city arborist didn’t return your call then I’d call the cops.
May 27, 2011 at 1:59 am #724956
I WonderMemberDepartment of Planning and Development people, its spelled out right on their website! Arborists are not inspectors! The police are not code engineers!
Really, you want a paid person perusing blogs for community issues? Isn’t that what public meetings are for? Contact phone numbers in the City.gov directory? Sheesh, lets be a little proactive in our community rather than waiting for someone else to read about the problem. Do we wait for the WSB inbox to hear about an issue, and then wait for the intern to read about it to find out what we’re thinking is a solution? BTW, how many neighborhood blogs do you think will need to be reviewed?
May 27, 2011 at 4:02 am #724957
WSBKeymasterWe do have government folks pop in and comment. On our news stories. As I imagine they do on other news sites. Believe me, the server logs show plenty of readership in city/county gov’t. Who specifically the readers are – impossible to tell, of course (the entire city of Seattle gov’t, for example, tends to show up with just ONE IP).
I’ve heard anecdotally of the occasional government person checking on forums, but that’s a lot to wade through, whereas if you for example are interested in transportation comments (such as the WSDOT PR person who jumped into the Highway 99 discussion earlier this week
https://westseattleblog.com/2011/05/highway-99-squeeze-week-1-wsdots-assessment/comment-page-1#comment-787772 ), that, you can find through watching the “transportation” category.
Much as I’ve given up on trying to patrol language, we do not operate this as a “blog” (we would change the name if not for the fact that would cause far more problems than it would solve), and it’s one of just a handful citywide in this format that are run as professional, commercial news sites. I imagine the others are perused by government reps from time to time too. I get e-mail sometimes directly from government reps saying “I saw the person who commented (whatever) – here’s the info about that.” I encourage them to comment directly rather than funnel through us, but policies in government agencies are not uniform regarding allowing employees to do that.
HOWEVER, none of this absolves anyone from trying to go through the prescribed channels first. As “Wonder” points out, it’s important to exhaust those, at least for starters, because that’s the first question you’ll be asked – “well, have you reported it?” The reply can’t be “No, I haven’t, cause nothing will ever be done about it.” If you’ve reported it AND nothing’s been done about it, then by all means, go ahead and say that, but there’s usually a lot more escalation you can try first. Hotlines, then specific staff members, then elected officials …
And if you have trouble finding out who/where, and you don’t find answers from fellow Forums members here, from whom I’ve sure learned a lot over the years – you’re also welcome to e-mail us. We spend a fair amount of time doing backchannel research that never winds up as a story, because somebody tried everything and couldn’t figure out where to go/what to do.
May 28, 2011 at 4:16 pm #724958
yeah-meParticipantThere is a very interesting story in this month’s Seattle Magazine about tree cutting laws. It sounds like there is an effort to remove some tree protection laws. Time to rally….
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.