Two Trees for San Francisco

Tues., Nov. 5, while drinking our morning tea we kept hearing a loud raucous from the trees in our next door neighbors backyard. It became so loud and intense we had to go check it out. A large group of ravens were in the tree as was Minuit, a petite black feral cat. The ravens were going off like we'd never heard before, screeching and scwaking and shaking the branches with all their might. We were quite amused until we saw a bunch of men with chainsaws enter the yard."Hello! Are you guys here to prune the trees?" I asked. "Nope! cutting them down they gotta go". Well, these trees are huge, old, healthy Monterey Pines and the only reason I chose this houyse to live in. We immediatly began pleading with the tree cutters to wait until we could contact the owners who were all at work. The mother of this family had previously told me she had chosen to buy that house because she loved the trees, so I knew I had to get a hold of her to stop this destruction. We were desperate, we didn't know how to contact the owners at work and the tree cutting crew had to do what they were hired for. We banged on neighbors doors to alert them to what was going on and we continued to plead with the tree crew. At first they were defensive, but we assured them we understood that they were hard working men with families but that these trees were to valuable to the neighborhood to loose. We could see a couple of the men were empathetic, not wanting to cut the trees down either. One man, Paul I think, grew up here in the Sunset and was really distressed about the situation, feeling the neighborhood had already been torn apart and cemented over since his youth. I stood at my back window, crying as the first tree was ascended. My daughter Wing brought her guitar to the backyard and began singing for the trees with all her might. Mykael went on line looking for groups who might help and I hit the phone calling anyone I could think of, Golden Gate Park, city planning com. etc., crying at the window inbetween calls. Mykael found on-line the "San Francisco Tree Council" and spoke with a beautiful woman, Carolyn, who besides being very comforting to our distress was activated and began making calls for help as well. Then I remembered Earthfirst!, found their one zine I had and began calling : Santa Cruz, Bay Area, Arcata, augh! no people, so I left messages,[ except at Bay Area which had no message service]. By now Wing had her colored chalk out and was drawing a huge tree mandala on our patio, singing and chanting for the life of the trees. Ed was up one of the trees with his chainsaw, cutting away, when I realized he'd been up there a long time and most of the tree was still intact. Then I realized he was moving as slow as he could, removing the least vital parts first, deadwood etc. Some of the crew on the ground were irritated with him, "Come on man! What are you doing? Why're you cutting all the little stuff? Limb it ! Lets get moving ! " But Ed just kept bantering with them and moving slowly. Well, we had'nt really found any solutions yet and Carolyn from S.F. Tree Council was still trying to brainstorm with Mykael. Mykael was ready to occupy the tree, so was I and so was Wing ! I caught Wing with her little backpack on and heading for the trees when I stopped her because we still had a little time to keep trying before trespassing, having the police come and the neighbors angry instead of empathetic. By now other neighbors were in their yards or haning out their windows, also pleading for the trees. One neighbor actually called the police to try and slow things down because she didn't know what else to do. Meanwhile, we're still dialogging [ha ha !...sorry] with the tree crew when the MOM comes home for lunch! First, Paul from the crew got ahold of her and explained how they could clean up the trees instead of removing them. She was concerned because she'd received a lot of threats from the neighbors behind her to sue her if she didn't remove the "unsafe" trees. In truth, they have a rooftop deck and want the trees removed to open up their veiw. Well, as I said, I knew she liked those trees and with all the magical love energy whipped up in her baqckyard she said, "YES"! , lets just clean them up then and make sure they're stable. Everyone was jumping for joy, even the tree crew, even Mike, the company owner! Carolyn, from S.F. Tree Council informed us of something called, "San Francisco Neighborhood Law" which is available to read at the law library, 401 Civic Center @ Van Ness or from their on-line site @ http://www.ci.sf.ca.usforwardflashffll. Within it's content one can find out about neighborhood civil rights and how to protect oneself from aggressive bullies who are "illeagally" threatening you. So our beautiful Monterey Pines are still gracing the hood [and holding up the sand dunes behind our houses! ] Funny thing though, the next day that huge, amazing storm blew into S.F. Thunder and lightning here in the Sunset, wind, rain and even hail, all day long and through the night with the winds reaching 70mph.! When the morning arrived we all peaked outside to see how our trees weathered the storm [ having just had about 50% of themselves removed ] and they were there, tall and beautiful... but the fences of the naughty neighbors were all blown down !
The day after our crisis I got a call from Shunka, from Northcoast Earthfirst! I had left a rather frantic message there and he was calling back to see what had happened. After hearing the good news he directed me to Indymedia to see some of his posts and photos. When I saw the photo with referance to Bast, the cat goddess I knew immediatly that it was she who had directed Minuit, the beautiful black feral into the tree to upset the ravens who drew our attention to them and thereby alerting us to what was about to unfold!
I feel Mikey's "Sunset Tree Service" is to be commended and encouraged for their openheartedness and compassion in this situation. I know they actually lost money cleaning rather then cutting the trees. Ed, with the chainsaw is an artist of the highest caliber. Thanks to all of them ! If anyone else would like to encourage their actions : Mike @ Sunset Tree Service", 415 664-3901 (: (: (:
Love and Peace,
admoonstar