STOCKTON, California – Updated at 8:15 p.m
Stockton City Council voted 6-1 to move forward with the removal of 165 dead and diseased trees. Councilor Brando Villapudua was the dissenting vote.
The project involved the removal of 567 tree stumps and the pruning of nearly 24,000 trees.
Officials said the 165 trees were other than the 435 trees scheduled to be removed for sidewalk repairs. They said those trees were tied to work orders that the city’s people had to submit.
As the birds sing in the calm Delta breeze that blows through downtown Stockton, longtime resident Katya Evanhoe catches up with her friends.
Standing under the shade provided for decades by one of Stockton’s estimated 92,000 city-owned trees, the quiet conversation quickly jumps to a more controversial topic: its sprayed-on white triangle.
“That’s a beautiful pistachio tree in my neighborhood that’s probably been there for 45 years,” Evanhoe said, looking up. “These three trees behind me have been marked for killing by the City of Stockton.”
The triangles are not a new sight. They have appeared on trees around the city in recent weeks as part of the city’s already-approved plan to cut down 435 trees to repair sidewalks, gutters and curbs.
Evanhoe and dozens of other community members were full in recent city council meetings, speaking out against the plan and offering alternative ways to repair the sidewalks.
“Without those three trees, it’s going to be a heat island,” Evanhoe said. “We’re going to fight badgers and badgers and badgers and keep speaking out until we can save those trees.”
The protest briefly worked when city officials announced they would pause their plans to cut down trees, but days later chainsaws began humming again across the city.
Now, almost a month after the public backlash began, the city is proposing to scrap 165 more.
“Dismay and disgust. I have a feeling they are ruthless. They use the analytics data and don’t think about people, especially children and the elderly,” responded Evanhoe. “There’s no thought involved at all.”
This time, city officials say the trees on the proposed chopping block are dead or unhealthy. For Julie Dunning, a downtown resident, the only thing that will be unhealthy is her neighborhood if the city goes ahead with current plans that don’t include replanting the trees.
“Not only are there health implications, (trees) stop producing oxygen and absorbing CO2,” Dunning said. “But there are also heat effects. They’re doing this project right at the beginning of summer.”
Without trees to cool the cement, Dunning said she would have no motivation to walk on the newly repaired sidewalks.
The new proposal will come before Stockton City Council during its Tuesday session. Evanhoe says she and her friends will be there.
“Tuesday we’re back with the City Council,” Evanhoe said. “We’re going to lose our treetops, and in a town like Stockton where the summers are harsh, that’s reckless… we’re not going away.”
Watch more from ABC10: Over 400 Stockton trees are on the chopping block as the city plans repairs
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/stockton/tree-removal-backlash/103-bb09f241-9fbf-463f-8f67-06ed8ffd355c
