Protesters gather as extensive tree removal begins for Shoreline transportation project – KOMO News

SHORELINE, Wash. A major re-design of a roadway will create a more walkable route for people to reach light rail in Shoreline, but it comes at the expense of hundreds of trees.

Huge Douglas firs, big leaf maples and red cedars got caught in a collision course with the project and protesters showed up as crews began chopping them down on Thursday. The first of 317 trees began being cleared Thursday morning along North 145th Street near Interstate 5, and the removal is expected to continue into the weekend.

Protesters with the group Save Shoreline Trees and other grassroots organizations held up signs advocating for the trees as they were being taken down. Many had spent months lobbying to save them.

We have to have trees. There is nothing we can manufacture that will do for us what the trees do for us, said Sandy Shettler with the group Tree Action Seattle. We held out hope that because of the craziness of taking down the very thing that enables us to survive, that their minds would be changed, that something could be done with this project."

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For the next seven months, a section of North 145th Street will remain closed between 1st Ave NE to just west of I-5 as improvements are made along the corridor ahead of the opening of a light rail station later this year.

The city wants to widen the sidewalk and make traffic flow improvements along North 145th Street by replacing the traffic signals at the access ramps to I-5 with roundabouts, calling them a better option for cars, bicycles and pedestrians to access the light rail station that will open later this year.

A city spokesperson said the current layout is congested, accident prone and largely inaccessible to people walking or riding bicycles. Getting people out of their cars and using public transit, such as light rail, will help the city achieve its climate goals, the spokesperson said.

They could easily be building around many of these trees but they are choosing not to, said Richard Ellison, one of the protesters. Somebody is posturing and saying, 'Oh we have to just mow them all down and we can't build around them,' and they could be looking and saying, 'Hey here's a cluster of some really nice trees, let's make the sidewalk go around them."

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According to the city, modifications have been made to some aspects of the project to save more trees. They will also eventually plant nearly twice as many trees as are removed to make up for the loss.

They will not provide the cooling for people or the habitat for wildlife that these trees provide," Shettler said.

Hundreds of additional trees will be cut down as future phases of the transportation project get underway, and demonstrators called on city officials to adjust the plans.

I hope that somehow we can stop them from doing that. They can change their plans. There's nothing that says you can't change your plans, said Joe Olson, one of the demonstrators.

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Protesters gather as extensive tree removal begins for Shoreline transportation project - KOMO News