Memorial Park Tree Removal Delayed Until April

Editor’s Note: The original story said the timeline to remove the tree was the end of April 2024. The tree will be removed sometime in mid-April, according to the City of Newberg. We regret the error.

The City of Newberg is delaying the removal of the Coastal Redwood tree in Memorial Park until mid-April, allowing Newberg residents time to visit the tree before its removal, according to a press release from the city.

“We are pleased the city has postponed the execution, but we are still holding out hope that they will hold a public forum and answer all the people’s questions, listen to all the ideas for alternative options, and clear up some of the mixed messages they have given,” wrote Joni Zimmerman, a member of the Tree Committee from the Sustainable Solutions Group of the Newberg-Dundee Area (SSGND), in an email.

Members of SSGND approached the Newberg City Council on February 5, 2024, to express concerns about the planned removal of a Coastal Redwood on S Blaine Street in Memorial Park.

The group’s primary concern was the removal of a healthy tree in the name of civic infrastructure, followed by assertions that the removal is related to plans to expand the Newberg-Dundee Police Department (NDPD) parking lot.

The city denied the latter, stating that while there are discussions about expanding the NDPD lot in the future, the projects are unrelated.

During the City Council meeting on February 20, 2024, representatives from the Newberg Public Works department provided a presentation detailing the tree’s roots’ damaging an underground stormwater pipe. Public Works Director Russ Thomas stated that the city attempted to contain the tree’s roots underground with a root barrier around 15 years ago, but the tree’s roots have grown through the barrier and are now damaging the pipe. 

The city provided an arborist report from November 2023, which determined the tree is healthy. However, it would become a public safety risk if the city were to complete the maintenance on the damaged stormwater pipe, which would require cutting the tree’s roots. The work would also damage and require the removal of the neighboring Oregon White Oak, as the two root systems have become intertwined.

During the Newberg City Council meeting on March 18, 2024, Newberg City Council and staff listened to nine public comments from Newberg residents regarding the tree’s removal.

SSGND staged an informational picket around the tree on Friday, March 15, and Saturday, March 16, to raise awareness about the removal and then attended the city council meeting with a collection of 390 online and in-person petition signatures and comments from concerned residents.

Their primary request: the removal of the Redwood be “postponed indefinitely until you have allowed time and opportunity for public comment and have considered all possible options for stormwater management, including green infrastructure in the downtown area, making saving the tree the top criteria in considering options,” according to the petition. 

“Some members of Sustainable Solutions are reconciled to losing this tree and moving on to grieving,” Zimmerman wrote in an email. “Some of us, myself included, believe the city has only considered old tired options; things they have always done, that always puts the wellbeing of nature last and the expediency of humans first.”

Members of SSGND expressed concerns about the swiftness of the removal during the city council meeting, asserting the city had not explored all of the alternatives to save the tree and a failed to announce the removal to the broader Newberg community, considering the tree’s prominence in Newberg.

“With the exception of one couple out of dozens that I spoke with, no one knew with the exception of one couple that the tree was scheduled to come down,” said Newberg Resident Sue Easterly, who gathered signatures for the petition on Saturday, March 16. “Residents I spoke with were shocked about it. This confirms my opinion that many Newberg residents were not given the opportunity to fight for an alternative to destroying the most beautiful tree in Memorial Park.”

City staff presented several alternative solutions during the February 20, 2024, meeting. Moving the storm line to the south side of Blaine Street would cost over $500,000, said City of Newberg Public Works Maintenance Superintendent Preston Langeliers in the February 20 City Council meeting. Moving the line to the other side of Memorial Park on S. Howard Street would likely be over $1 million.

“While the city is aware of the comments and has responded with offers of extra trees and a willingness to conduct code revisions, update the tree list, etc., there has been no workable solution received on either the cost or any rational solution to saving the sidewalk, pipes and one day the street itself,” wrote Newberg City Manager Will Worthey in an email.

He continued to say the potential solutions offered by SSGND were either impractical or prohibitively expensive to the taxpayer.

“This looked like a fairly simple decision when I saw it,” said Councilor Molly Olson during the March 18 meeting. “We have a problem with stormwater — it’s going to cost somewhere in the realm of $750,000 to $1 million to route the stormpipe (on the other side of S Blaine Street or Memorial Park). That’s not money that we have. We have a lot of things … there are a lot of roads that could use that $750,000. So it seemed to me very fiscally responsible.”

Councilor Olson continued to say she and the other councilors potentially did not realize the importance of the tree to the community.

“We don’t want to do this, but we don’t see a better way to do this,” she added.

Council deliberated but remained steadfast in the decision that the tree would be removed due to the steep cost of alternatives. 

“You can rest assured that our fine staff in Newberg has looked at every plausible solution and every one of them comes with a price tag that’s so big we’ve got no choices,” said Newberg Mayor Bill Rosacker. “We have to take that tree down and fix that pipe. I know you’re not going to like it, but I don’t see it going any other way.”

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024, the City of Newberg sent a press release stating the decision to remove the tree has not changed. However, “out of respect for those who have advocated so fiercely for the Redwood,” council will be postponing the removal of the tree and removing the fence around the tree until April to allow Newberg residents time to visit the tree before its removal — an arrangement brought around by Worthey and Casey Banks from Newberg First United Methodist Church.

While the fate of the redwood tree is all but sealed, Worthey said the city is still committed to planting five trees after removing the three from Memorial Park, as well as reevaluating Newberg’s tree policy — which helps ensure the right trees are planted in the right locations, ideally avoiding a situation like this in the future. In a “Mayor’s Musing” submission to Newsberg, Mayor Rosacker also expressed desire to use the redwood lumber for a project in town. 

“Like many others, I will miss the big tree and remember it fondly, which is why the city will make good use of the lumber from the tree,” Rosacker wrote. “I will strongly support using the lumber for a purpose that will honor the tree and the citizens of Newberg.”

For more information and updates, visit the City of Newberg project website.