‘We all took these trees for granted’

By Jane Fritz
Reader Contributor

For 48 years, every time I drove east down Oak Street in Sandpoint, I thanked the resplendent heritage Norway maple on the corner of Fourth Avenue for its remarkable beauty and its towering presence in any season. 

So full of life, it was a close friend to me and so many others. Gail Lyster, who served on the City’s Tree Commission, had even hung a chain necklace around it that said “Heritage Tree.” Greg Flint and Jeff “Sprouts” Rich would sit below it humbly selling their gleaned dried plums, cherries and apples. More recently, the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force volunteers handed out “Love Lives Here” signs and visited with passersby on their way to the Farmers’ Market. The fruitful mountain ash tree that stood nearby would bring hundreds of birds every winter to feast on its brilliant orange berries.

But ever since the city of Sandpoint expanded the sidewalks in that part of town without regard for any of the tree root systems, these trees began to slowly die. When STCU acquired the corner property, they added more concrete and stone. The food court parking lot of gravel replaced grass, and suddenly these trees had no soil, water or room to grow, let alone survive. 

These past two years, every time I traveled east down Oak Street, I noticed the trees’ decline and begged forgiveness and promised to do something. 

Time passes, life priorities change and it wasn’t until last summer that I started speaking out and asking arborists I know about what could be done to save these trees. I spoke my three public minutes at City Council meetings to no avail, and finally in October, I found STCU facilities manager Doug Koch in Spokane, who promised to bring our local certified arborist, Paige Belfry, rather than the usual commercial Spokane tree people, to determine from her expertise and education if these trees could be saved. 

I asked to be involved as well and alerted those other friends of the maple asking them to support saving them. Then I had a difficult winter and, although I left a couple of voicemails for him, I didn’t connect with Mr. Koch until March 3, when he called to say that the trees were being cut down. 

I’ve lost a lot of friends lately, but this maple tree marking 48 years of my life in Sandpoint has created a deep and unbearable grief. I don’t know how I will be able to drive down Oak on my way to the post office or the bank across the street without weeping. We all took these trees for granted.  

All life dies, but our human negligence caused these early deaths. Gail’s necklace was likely tossed in the trash. The hardwood hauled away or chipped where it could have been crafted into art or bowls or even a monument in memory of these trees. Where do the birds now find their winter food with such habitat loss? But what really hurts is that none of us got to say goodbye. So much for STCU’s “Here for Good” motto. Not in our community. The company’s insensitivity stings instead.

Have we learned anything with this incredible loss? There are two more areas regarding trees in our city that we need to save on city property, not on private land as in this case. Most imminent is the native cottonwood grove at the end of Cedar Street past the library and near Lincoln Street, part of a reconstruction project and considered “junk” by the city. They are slated to be cut down soon, even though they are critical perch trees for the nearby osprey nest — especially juvenile birds who fledge — as well as more than 200 species of moths and butterflies feeding songbirds like yellow warblers, chickadees and vireos. 

The other is Farmin Park, where many of the maples are dying because of the same expanded sidewalks, along with soil compaction and exposed roots trampled by thousands of human feet every summer, whether at the Farmers’ Market or music events.

We need to make some changes if these trees are to be saved, but with no budget for caring for these or any trees in the city, part of the “Tree City USA” accolades we’ve received in past years has become ironic. 

What can you, dear citizen, do? Contact Mayor Jeremy Grimm or the Urban Forestry Commission and speak out. Tell them how you feel about our Heritage Trees and do it now.