SANTA CRUZ — A madrone tree tucked away in the parking lot of a Santa Cruz office building was spared after residents of a neighboring building protested its scheduled removal — with one man climbing and occupying the tree.
“I always considered myself an activist,” said neighbor Brett Garrett, who scaled the tree Tuesday morning. “And I like trees in general, but I didn’t consider myself to be a tree activist until the last week.”
The madrone, thought to have been planted about 10 years ago, looms over a patio at the neighboring Walnut Commons, a cohousing building. It had been slated for removal Tuesday by one of the office building’s tenants — the nonprofit Ecology Action — to make way for an electric bike storage shed.
According to Heather Henricks with Ecology Action, the placement of the shed was in the works for the past year, and the tree’s welfare was considered, but its existence was seen by the nonprofit’s leadership as a possible nuisance to the neighbors.
“We gave considerable thought to the site and whether to remove the tree,” Henricks told the Sentinel. “Until the past week, we were under the impression from Walnut Commons residents that they would welcome the tree’s removal due to complaints about its droppings on their patios and the possibility of thieves using it to climb over the divider between our properties.”
But about a week ago, while on the patio, some Walnut Commons residents overheard the office building’s property manager talking about the tree’s removal. The news spread quickly to other residents, including Garrett, who has lived in the building since it was built nearly 10 years ago, on the block kitty-corner from Santa Cruz City Hall.
“The word spread like wildfire through the building and everyone felt really alarmed about possibly losing this tree,” said Garrett. “It’s right next to our patio and it feels like part of our environment even though it is on their property.”
The neighbors put together a petition opposing the madrone’s removal and nearly every resident of the building signed it — 23 signatures. Garrett said he and his neighbors thought the tree’s removal was being facilitated by Cruzio Internet, another of the building’s tenants, and were surprised to discover that it was Ecology Action. After creating the petition, the residents reached out to the nonprofit.
“In the face of today’s mounting climate crisis, we need passionate environmentalists more than ever,” said Henricks. “We were deeply touched to learn that our neighbors felt a strong connection to the strawberry madrone tree and were moved to request we adjust the plan.”
As of Monday afternoon, the removal was still slated to go ahead. Garrett, who said his activism is usually centered around environmental issues such as clean energy and transportation, decided that he had to take extreme action. Around 7 a.m. Tuesday, he climbed the tree — inspired in part by Julia Butterfly Hill, who in the late 1990s lived for more than two years in an old-growth redwood tree in Humboldt County to prevent it from being cut down.
“I don’t know how many weeks she spent up in that tree,” said Garrett. “I was prepared to spend a few hours.”
Garrett said that climbing the tree was an empowering experience and as he perched there Tuesday morning he felt peaceful. After about two hours, Ecology Action Chief Operating Officer Chuck Tremper gave him some good news.
“He drove into the parking lot and noticed me in the tree and came over and said that you might want to know the tree is not coming down,” said Garrett. “I was very relieved.”
Garrett mentioned that being an activist doesn’t always mean that one’s actions result in an intended outcome and that he was excited that the neighbors’ efforts saved the tree.
“The usual experience as an activist is that you work on things and bang on walls and nothing ever changes,” said Garrett. “This felt really gratifying to work on this for just a few days with a good cohort of other people and actually save the tree. It shows me that activism is really worthwhile and you can really make a difference.”
After Garrett safely descended the madrone and returned home Tuesday, Tremper sent a message to Walnut Commons residents.
“All of us at Ecology Action have been touched by how many people in our neighborhood have come to love and value the tree — and be moved to protect it. And we want to protect it,” wrote Tremper. “After some late-night brainstorming and penciling, we have found a way to do just that. Although we’ll need to further reduce our parking and make some other adjustments that will add to our team’s workload, we are proposing to move our bike storage building further away from the south lot line so the tree can remain.”
