Letters To The Editor

Thu., May 28, 1998

We must speak out for Corbin trees

“Many winters I have breasted the storm, but I am an aged tree, and can stand no longer. My leaves are fallen, my branches are withered and I am shaken by every breeze. Soon my aged trunk will be prostrated, and the foot of the exalting foe … may be placed upon it with safety; for I leave none who will be able to avenge such an injury.”

In 1830, Red Jacket, chief of the Seneca Nation, spoke these words during his last days of life in New York, but his speech could just as easily be the eulogy for three dozen of Corbin Park’s trees that the city of Spokane has decided must be removed soon. But as we walk through an old forest - even an urban one in a city park like Corbin - we should regard these oldsters as more than just living monuments to a pristine past, when the native inhabitants here and elsewhere in the Americas considered themselves more stewards than owners of their lands.

These most highly evolved of all plant species on the planet also provide habitat to animals (even after they’re completely lifeless), they offer shade to users as well as immediate neighbors of the park and, probably most crucial to our public health, they help remove from our skies what is unquestionably some of the worst air pollution of any comparably sized city in the country.

Should a valuable old tree be removed before its time, replanting a smaller replica in its place does very little to supplant its predecessor’s aforementioned burdens. While there’s no denying that any big tree can endanger people and property when it falls, all trees ought to be measured by their inherent risks against gains when evaluating them for removal. And park trees pose much less of a hazard to power lines, streets, traffic and adjacent property than street trees.

As neighborhood advocates, we have to speak for all our residents, even the birds, squirrels and, most of all, the trees. When we listen closely enough, we can hear their voices. To the city of Spokane we now entreat: Please hear all our voices. Dale Roloff Spokane

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