Saratoga News Letters Trees add to the city's character I have read the articles and commentary on the state of trees in Saratoga for many weeks now, usually shaking my head in disbelief that removal of big trees in Saratoga is even considered. After all, Saratoga prides itself on its semi-rural atmosphere, and trees must be a part of that atmosphere. Several weeks ago there was a statement that only the oldtimers care about the big trees. Not true! Four years ago my family visited Saratoga and other surrounding communities as we planned our move to this area. Later that summer my husband called me back home in Illinois when he had found a potential home for us here. The house was in Saratoga. I thought "Oh no!" as I initially remembered Saratoga as the town through which Highway 85 ran prominently like a big, ugly scar. But as my husband and I discussed the town more, I remembered the tall trees that lined Saratoga-Sunnyvale road and the giant eucalyptus trees at Saratoga School. The image of those trees was in my mind when I told him, "Yes, let's move here." When the trees went down at Argonaut Shopping Center, my initial reaction was similar to the feeling of violation one feels when you come home and find you have been robbed. "How could they do this!" I said to my son. I shed a tear whenever a big, beautiful tree comes down. I hope the leaders of Saratoga wake up and recognize the jewels in their town! Man has walked on the moon and cloned animals, but as yet man has not pulled a 100-year-old eucalyptus tree out of a test tube. Until then, let's figure out a way to peacefully co-exist with the beautiful environment that surrounds us and let the trees remain, for us, our children and future generations to enjoy. Karen Burley Solana Drive Consider options besides tree cutting To the Saratoga Union School District board of trustees, and those in favor of cutting down the mighty eucalyptus trees behind the Saratoga School: Please don't! I came to know these trees just four short years ago when I decided to take a break during a hot Saturday afternoon walk. The largest two trees beckoned me with their shade, and were a welcome sight in my search to find a place of rest away from the sun and heat of the day. Often I have stopped by the trees since that time to gaze at their magnificent grandeur and beauty. I was extremely saddened to recently learn that the SUSD school board approved the removal of 27 trees, including two eucalyptus trees that are almost a century old. The reasons cited are for the development of a ball field behind the school, and for safety. It is always upsetting to lose a tree, but especially for insufficient reasons. I am extremely concerned that alternative options regarding the development of the playfield, leaving the trees intact, are not being considered. In addition, the safety issues have been misconstrued by allowing a one-sided set of facts to be presented to those who petitioned for their removal. Finally, the trees do not belong to the SUSD board or to the parents of Saratoga School children. Rather, they belong to the entire community and to our environment. As a resident of Saratoga, I wish that I had been part of the "vote" to decide on their fate. This issue must be re-evaluated by the constituents of Saratoga with all the facts on the table. Tara Larsen Vineyard Lane Who will tell the children of trees? What will we tell the children who have passed through the school that the trees they came to know as sheltering trees are all gone? That the tangible piece of their memories from their early years has been wrenched from its birthplace? That their intrinsic sense of their well-being that was gained by this historical connection has been ended? For what? Perceived safety? Who will tell the children who now pass by these trees that the cultural enrichment they learn from texts means nothing to those who see only the short-term need and that the need necessitates taking the cultural reality away from them? For what? Pragmatic myopia? Who will tell the children that the meaning of the words "intrinsic value," "cultural impact," "enrichment of the mind," "historical lineage" and "sense of well-being" is of so much less currency than the immediacy of a quick decision? Who will tell the children? Not me. I couldn't do it. Carolyn Blesch Old Tree Way Fields will create unsafe traffic Yes, kids should have a place to play soccer. But soccer traffic should not impact our neighborhoods and the safety of the children coming and going from school, nor use up land which provides a place for free play that is fundamentally important for our school and neighborhood children. From my experience, vans are the favored transportation system used by soccer moms in the area. Vans just do not allow a person to see very well as they try to park and back up. I have now been run into twice (my body once and my car once) by vans trying to back up in the Lucky store parking lot. Both times van drivers were very sorry. They just didn't see me. I don't think of myself as a large person, but I am much larger than a young child and though small, my car is very much larger than a young child. I have been to soccer practice many times at Fisher, where my little car was the only car and the rest were vans, mostly very large vans. This is the last thing we need in a place like the Marshall Lane neighborhood where there is no defined place for children to walk and thus they walk on the edge of the road, exactly where vans would try to parallel park. Children walk there not just at times when school is beginning and ending, but by 11:30 a.m. and all through the afternoon at odd times right up to 6 p.m. and later in the summer and all through the weekends. When I was on the city council, we started to establish walking and bike paths in this eastern part of the city beginning along Allendale Avenue and Quito Road, but the space is too narrow to provide a separate, safe place for the children, especially immediately around Marshall Lane. The city never had the will or dollars to provide a safe space to walk in the neighborhoods even where there may be room for paths. Adding vans to the mix vastly increases the danger. Some have suggested using the Heritage Orchard for a new playfield. The hard-won promise of preservation of our city heritage orchard would be violated by using that space for soccer. This orchard was used for environmental mitigation to make up for other open space and heritage losses and cannot be used for other activities without violating the trusts of past agreements. When I was on the council we did everything we could to preserve the space where the main post office now stands for a soccer/ball field. It was an ideal site, but Redwood School wanted short-term dollars by selling that field. I even went to Washington D.C., and met face to face with the postmaster to get postal officials to change their mind on using the Redwood field. With more community support influencing the school board decisions, we might have saved that site. Over many years we fought the loss of the Quito School and its field where densely packed houses now stand. That would have also been an ideal site (though on the border, not actually in Saratoga). Again the school district wanted the short-term dollars and the land was sold. Later the Cox/Saratoga-Sunnyvale park site was somehow transferred by a pro-development council in [what I consider to be] a highly questionable sleight-of-hand conversion. This would have also been a good, accessible soccer site. Realistically, decisions to convert open land in public ownership to private, built-on land cannot be undone. Even where private land potentially well situated (such as the Abrams property) is still open and may become available, new park land purchase does not seem an option at today's land prices compared with city revenues and set-aside funds, though possibilities could, of course, be investigated. As a councilmember 19 years ago, and as a citizen I fought hard to prevent these open space losses as did many friends. Short-term interests prevailed. We are trying to solve a problem that now has no good solution. I have to favor the safety of our school and neighborhood children over the new proposed activities. Cheriel Jensen Quito Road [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.