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Suzanne Clark <br /> 1898 Fircrest <br /> • <br /> Eugene, OR 97403 <br /> 687 -0349 <br /> August 19, 1997 <br /> To: Members of the Hendricks Park Ad Hoc Group and the City of Eugene <br /> From: Suzanne Clark <br /> Re: Comments on the Hendricks Park hazardous trees <br /> Background <br /> Here is the history of this group as I understand it: <br /> Over several years during the 1990s, various departments of the city have come to realize <br /> that there were problems with the trees in Hendricks Park, particularly the trees vulnerable <br /> to edge effects - -those along the borders not only of the tree canopy, but also bordering <br /> human habitat: houses, roads, paths. Some trees have been removed because they were <br /> perceived as hazardous. Every year trees have fallen. At some point there was a <br /> realization that some of the trees appeared to be diseased. As the extent of the problem <br /> began to be apparent, the resistance of tree activists also began to increase. Partly because <br /> of this ongoing political resistance to cutting trees, the city has proceeded with <br /> extraordinary care. Over the past year, the potentially hazardous trees in Hendricks Park <br /> have been studied with much greater intensity than is the norm here or elsewhere for urban <br /> forestry. A series of experts have viewed the trees, performed a variety of tests, and <br /> compiled their opinions. This extensive study, coordinated by the urban forester, has <br /> already cost much more in cash outlay and in time than the city could afford to regularly <br /> commit to the monitoring of Eugene's trees. By the beginning of 1997, almost a hundred <br /> trees had been identified that constituted potential hazards because of disease, aging, <br /> structure, and proximity to "targets." But the city did not proceed to avoid all problems <br /> by just cutting down trees. It made instead a real effort to conserve as many trees as <br /> possible. At that point an even more intense study began of those trees, with <br /> measurements of decay, of disease infection, of root rot, and further careful inspections of <br /> those trees. That study singled out only the immediately most dangerous trees and those <br /> so infected with disease that they threaten to spread it to surrounding trees: the pared - <br /> down list numbered 18. The city scheduled a meeting to explain its decision for June 17. <br /> But the political climate just after the "tree riot" downtown was so intense that the <br /> meeting was postponed for a month, to July 17. At that meeting, the level of emotional <br /> resistance to cutting trees in Hendricks Park, and the voiced distrust of city management <br />