On Saturday, March 1st, friends and neighbors of a giant redwood tree (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the 5800 block of Woodlawn Avenue N gathered to save it from being cut down to make way for the construction of a very large single-family home on the lot. Yes, this is a little outside the boundaries of Wallingford as laid down by our assignment editors, but it is within easy walking distance of North Wallingford, and this tree is impressive!
Over 95 people showed up to show their support for Grace, the new name given to the Redwood based on the most votes from the crowd (other nominated names were Sentinel, Woodlawn Giant, Magnificent, and Big Green). It’s hard to say which birthday year folks were celebrating, but Grace’s age was pegged at anywhere from 80 to 120 years. (The original home on the lot was constructed in 1902). This Sequoia is massive, with a trunk five feet in diameter and a height in the 100-foot range. Obviously, the person who planted it had no idea how big it would eventually get, as it dwarfs the front yard that it sits in!
There were birthday cupcakes, kids chalked colored images of Grace on the sidewalk, and yes, they even sang Happy Birthday to her, with a bit of a rap beat. A neighbor, Max Sevareid, helping the drive to save Grace, probed the crowd with questions about the largest and most famous redwoods in Sequoia National Park, and then gave a brief update on the status of the birthday girl: the new property owner from Kenmore applied for city permits to remove Grace and most other trees on the lot and demolish the existing single-family home in May of last year but hasn’t gotten final approval. A long-time neighbor spoke about how Grace had imprinted her with its presence over the decades.
Sandy Shettler, from Tree Action Seattle, explained that a volunteer architect with her organization had studied the site and the current proposed design, and concluded that small changes, such as reconfiguring a planned driveway and making minor changes to the design of the house, could save the redwood and other large trees on the site. Both the Green Lake Sequoia group and Tree Action Seattle have tried to engage in dialogue with the property owner without any success.
Shettler urged the crowd to write to Seattle Council members, especially Dan Strauss, whose district covers the neighborhood where the tree is located. To date, over 940 people have signed an online petition urging the property owner and the city to save the tree. Shettler believes that Seattle, with its new city tree ordinance passed in May 2023, offers little protection for trees, with the loss of 2,000 trees to development in 2024 alone, and that, “The clearcut planned for one of Green Lake’s last conifer groves shows how unprotected Seattle’s trees are under the new ordinance.” See their tracking map.
It would be easy to see the battle to save Grace as a just another part of that statistic, but I can’t help but think of the publicity battle that was successfully waged by neighborhood and citywide activists to preserve Luma, an ancient Western red cedar in Wedgwood in 2023. Ultimately, the developers of that property ceded to the community’s wish to put trees over maximum development.
People who are interested in finding out more about preserving Grace the giant sequoia can go to www.greenlakesequoia.com, and see the growing petition here.
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