( 4 "I watched this tree grow from a little baby, and it's just my instinct to try to keep it alive." Bu <br /> —MIKE McCARTHY,ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST <br /> • • • • • <br /> pa <br /> ss <br /> This timegreen activist • <br /> In <br /> fromgrounduo savetree �'t <br /> The$50 <br /> .. -03 package r <br /> Mike McCarthy hopes that a funding <br /> heavy equipment operatorBY, <br /> will move a cedar for free Th€ <br /> BY JOE MOSLEM ° <br /> SALEM <br /> The Register Guard y` <br /> .- , proved a $5 <br /> � 1;71:;.4',4,,.1' day to close <br /> it isn't so ' " , k• ' � ' `, - K r <br /> To Mike McCarthy, • a <br /> '° '� � i',.--,1/4%,,,t .,�, ., ' �' .fir �;� ,� gap. <br /> much different from tree sitting. i�* �� '"'4 xq ,",4,-,.,„!,,,,:• ;, Y The plan <br /> The bottom line is that he's trying �+ ' • =w y`r , w services ani <br /> to save a tree — although this time ',o ` 4 "� "' • " were cut WI <br /> he's digging one up to move it,rather ;4 • `' r t ,•, ° .. ' proposed I <br /> than sitting among the boughs in de `'MV.;!;:7;,,:;,„-,17 +A' 1:--4-__,.,,•` � <br /> AFL; p in January. <br /> fiance of those who might otherwise 4 ' W 4 ;i •; `,, ,y The plat <br /> cut it down. ' _ - ,e which is exp <br /> "If it wasn't a living thing and we -�� 3. � ,` The mo <br /> - -1` <br /> didn't care so much about it, we • projected in <br /> -.; <br /> wouldn't be doing this," McCarthy p-` �� ;� gon has plu <br /> said Monday; waist deep in a circu lion, <br /> lar trench he and a few friends dug t r•'°"`"� .. And accordd <br /> '" _, we <br /> around a 3-year-old, 15 foot high �, ; , <br /> �"'" makers slide <br /> Western red cedar. �E..' - ,+ -°� <br /> Their hope is to find a heavy :,, e could the next <br /> equipment operator willing to work ,• bye be x1 <br /> '` for free or at a reduced cost to help weeks June befo c, The stal <br /> .: them move the young tree and its a <br /> massive root ball from the Whiteaker balanced 1 <br /> neighborhood to the yard of a friend t, , • "- $ and in five <br /> M. - �x havenbeen <br /> Eugene. <br /> 20 blocks away in west f "' <br /> Eugene. • come tax re <br /> ;,' co.1etaxr <br /> The tree is a far cry from the ma- <br /> tore giants that McCarthy has built billion <br /> The fin <br /> his tree-sitting reputation saving, ``,, Senate key <br /> but with a trunk that measures 8 to mainly by <br /> 10 inches in diameter it's also much against the <br /> larger than a typical candidate for national tc <br /> transplanting. ing $112 n <br /> Jeff Anderson, an urban foresterreserve fur <br /> for the Eugene Department of Parks Lawma <br /> and Open Space, said very few local and pieces <br /> trees with trunks larger than 2 inch- r. a million <br /> es in diameter are moved. cco <br /> a tobac <br /> "It's unusual to find that size of Tacopc <br /> tree being transplanted in this area," • sere fun( <br /> said Anderson,who had a look at the other rend <br /> project last week. "As a culture, we needed, v <br /> have lost the skill set for handling for the th <br /> 00 <br /> this kind of thing by hand, the way <br /> Mike is doing it.He's looking at pos- can Gov.sup Ti <br /> sibly 7,000 pounds of root ball, o <br /> said when <br /> there." opt <br /> that wh"The p <br /> The cedar,which sits in front of a unique sii <br /> L house on Blair Boulevard just north CHRIS PiErscx The Register-Guard W e ha <br /> of the Van Buren Street intersection, <br /> was planted as a memorial to Mike McCarthy admires the cedar he hopes to save by moving it from Plea <br /> Please turn to TREE,Page D4 the Whiteaker neighborhood to a.yard in west Eugene. <br />