Protester arrested as big tree is cut down in Pier Park
PORTLAND, Ore. - One person was arrested Friday during a protest at a Portland park where city crews cut down a giant sequoia tree to make room for a bike path and bridge.
The tree sits inside Pier Park, just across some railroad tracks from Chimney Park in North Portland. The new bridge will span some railroad tracks and connect the two parks.
Mark Ross with Portland Parks and Recreation said a plan to take the tree down to facilitate the construction of the bike path and bridge connecting a 10-mile North Portland greenway has been in the works for some time.
"We sympathize with people who want to save the tree," Ross said when he talked to KATU News on Feb 19. "We don't want to knock down a tree, but it's in balance with everything else, the best possible solution."
The sequoia tree is around 70 or 80 years old.
"We don't just go around cutting trees down willy-nilly," Ross said. "This is a very carefully considered project."
Fewer than a dozen protesters were on hand Friday morning as crews began preparations to trim, top and remove the 120-foot tall tree.
About eight Portland police officers arrived to keep protesters separated from the work crew.
One woman kissed the tree and said goodbye to it before the operation to cut it down began. She was escorted to the tree by the commander of the Portland Police Bureau North Precinct.
Another woman, Chris Fountain, called Portland officials to see if she could get them to delay the operation.
When her request was refused, Fountain proclaimed she was going to get arrested, crossed police tape and began running toward the tree. She was stopped by police officers and arrested.
"I think it's an absolute travesty to put a hiking path that has access for fire trucks in the middle of a beautiful sequoia tree," Fountain said.
The fight to save the tree began with Dennis Keepes, who tried to build support to save the tree before it was cut down Friday.
City officials said they have plans to mitigate the loss of the tree.
They said there are plans to plant additional giant sequoias in the same area and the tree itself will be recycled and turned into different features at a nature play area in Westmoreland Park.
The rest of the trees in the large grove of sequoias at Pier Park won't be affected by the project.
The bridge is part of a project to connect Kelly Point Park by trail all the way to the East Bank Esplanade across the river from downtown.
KATU reporter Dan Tilkin and photographer Mike Warner contributed to this report
Here's the thing with tree huggers, don't cut down the trees unless it benefits me. Wipe out a rain forest so corn can be grown to  power my bio diesel car? Absolutely. Cut down a 100 trees so a school can be built that my kids can walk to? You betcha. Tree growing where they want to put the swimming pool? Cut 'er down. Are they trying to save trees or their own dignity?Â
All this for a freekn Bicycle path???
Trees are republicans ..
They stand their ground and yell GET OFF MY LAWN....Â
Govt. for the people by the people. Here's proof positive that the damn govt. is gonna do anything it damn well pleases whether you like it or not. Protests against destroying this rare and majestic giant went unheard and uncared for. I, for one, have even more disrespect for those that demaned this bike/walking bridge. It could easily have been curved around the tree. BUT NO!!! It's gotta be their way for the highway. Oh, and "fanksbeans": wood isn't used to build cell towers. DUH!!
@None Don't cry, but the computer you're using came in a box, with instructions printed on paper. To avoid being  a hypocrite you should throw away your computer. How do you sleep?
Jeez, tree huggers are gonna demand chain saw bans or a background check before purchasing a saw to see if you have ever cut down a tree.
did she protest the cutting of the trees that made it possible for the cell phone towers that made it possible for her to talk on that cell phone?
"Fountain proclaimed she was going to get arrested" Well, I am glad she succeded in getting what she wanted! Maybe they can sell the timber for enough to offset the legal fees wasted on arresting her, transporting her and all the rest of MY TAX MONEY these freaks that are nuttier than squrrel crap waste by wanting to be noticed!
this is what happens with the left over occutards movement! they still dont understand when you trespass you are breaking the law!Â
@john When you trespass you are breaking the law???
 So the tree that had been there for over 100 years was breaking the law.
Oh Wait just the person who was trying to let it stay there....
@iamtroglodite@yahoo.com its the same reason each and every one of us post on these forums. FACT. why sh_t yourself? when one can admit things as i do ...they are free. and for those that actually think they are saying somehing meaningful...they are woefully incorrect. and that includes you moron!
@Pers Retiree @iamtroglodite@yahoo.com thats the best you could come up with? on the other hand I would rather be a moron than a cancer to society like you.
@Rob C 503 @franksbeans now wheres the fun in that? I like trolling them, that is all that keeps me reading katus news
@franksbeans ........try taking the high road and not stooping to their level !
@Rob C 503Â Read up I'm not the only one
@franksbeans .......can't you keep it civil?? Seriously !
@Pers Retiree @iamtroglodite@yahoo.com Time to go back to taking your meds, dude.
Bet she really freaked out when they took her to booking in a car and not on a bike!
@Jeff Harrington Yea real good lets all go and beat her for standing up for something she believes in...
You did have a mom right???Â
@uknow2 @Jeff Harrington Yep, and she was a logger, daughter of a logger, married to a logger. Ha Ha
Bet the woman arrested lives in a wood framed house. Last time I checked, tree's are a renewable resource
@Jeff Harrington .......try and renew a 100 year old, 120 foot tree in your lifetime ! In your children's lifetime !
@Rob C 503Â It's called growth, hate to break the news to you, but a tree is still a tree no matter the age. The ones they plant will age and grow. Do you live in a wood framed house? Write on paper? Use toilet paper? Hint, all come from trees.Â
@Jeff Harrington ......gee thanks. I feel so much more enlightened now. How did I ever get through life without your wisdom and observations of the obvious !
@Rob C 503Â how bout I just plant 100 1 year old trees, and after you and I are long gone chances are 1/2 those will still be around
gotta love the Oregon hippies.Â
one tree....really tree huggers look around Oregon has plenty more.
@Common Sence That's true! I saw one just yesterday!
I wonder if this lady was part of the Earth First movement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJFYwRtrH4
@UtterReality Freaks
One thing NOT mentioned in this on line article, but was on air. The requirement that this section/bridge must allow the passage of a FIRETRUCK. They are building a 1 lane ROAD.
So much for being from the other side of the tracks-
A St Johns Sequoia to become a Westmoreland play structure, how appropriate!
@Wallyltd I am surprised it did not end up in the pearl
The only crime here is the guy with the idea that the tree had to go. There had to be other options.
Keep Portland weird. I find it amazing that people care so much about a single tree. The parks department said they will plant more, so what is the big deal? Its better than the tree dying and falling over onto something.
Ignorance supreme! These trees don't die anytime soon - this one was only 80 years old, and could have lived for another 300 or so at least, unless something killed it. We don't have a lot of giant sequoia around here, os this is a huge loss! Like someone else commented, there had to be better options, like NO FIRE TRUCK ACCESS! And, no, I'm not a "treehugger"!
Will this be a toll bridge or a troll bridge?
So now all the off leash dogs from Chimney park can run across the bridge to crap in Pier park .
hope they turn it into a bench and use it as a reminder to all those tree hugging hippies
People should protest human overpopulation and call for more global birth control, if saving (many) trees is really the goal. But it also does come down to one tree at a time.
Those who call this an "extremist" protest should consider the insanity of an economy based on perpetual growth on a finite planet. The status quo of endlessly cannibalizing nature is the true extremism when you do the math.
Also, anyone who thinks logging has minimal impact should study satellite photos. For example, look at the "devastation" around Mt. St. Helens and compare it to the total acreage affected by clear-cutting. The latter is far more pervasive.
@Alec Sevins Just think, it was done for the good of the folks that ride bicycles since the streets are so f****d up...
They cut down a giant sequoia for a bicycle path and bridge?Â
I am absolutely horrified!
@correct--- Not near as horrified as I am that I actually agree with you.
This reminds me of Joni Mitchell's song Yellow Taxi,
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
And put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half to seem 'em
Don't it always seem to go,
That you don't know what you've got
Til its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot...
Are you kidding me, they cut down a perfectly healthy tree for a bike path and a bridge?
Haven't they ever been to Capilano Suspension Bridge in Vancouver, BC?
.
Shame on the people who approved cutting this tree down, I never have been a tree hugger, but in GA Albertsons did this when they already owned property without the public knowing went in to a space in Marietta GA and cut down beautiful trees. They had a huge lawsuit they had to pay millions for. Snoqualmie Ridge did the same thing near North Bend WA. Cut down massive forested areas of trees. It does affect the environment. Built homes crunched together with hardly any yards. You could hear the freeway at my house nine miles away and the temperature rose three degrees. The homes flood from the rains, no roots to hold the soil together. And when the wind storms hit blows the roofs off. Go figure. Shame again itâs disgusting. Then they have to arrest a fragile old lady to prove their powers?
@Skip Portland already has the most tree cover of any major US city.  One tree that's being replaced by a bunch more to improve a park doesn't sound that bad here.
will passing all these "progressive" bills create a utopian society? will everyone hold hands and form a chain across oregon singing cumbaya? doesn't anyone even know that song in spanish?Â
@Phuzz Will the spanish only crowd get bilingual service if the Chinese kickus out forfailure topay the rent?
@Ramona @Phuzz fyi, i meant to post this on the migrant tuition bill story but good point
" I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees..."
Well, guess Dr. Seuss was right.Â