"Community" Foundation Destroys 200-Year-Old Aptos Landmark

Eutrophication is the disabling of the soil bacteria's ability to feed plants by being overrun by the need to decay dead matter. The root structure of this Cypress could have covered a very large distance. All that decaying matter will seriously effect the plant health of the entire area. The only hope maybe that the roots may be connected to other live trees in the area that will utilize and keep alive this system of roots.

I have Hypothesised that Eutrophication caused the desolation, of the land, and prehaps the madness, of the family, in the classic Edgar Allen Poe short story "The Fall of the House of Usher". Let us hope that the felling of this tree is not "The Fall of the House of Aptos".

Thank you Mother of the Earth for posting these sad pictures.

I wrote this Lyric Poem soon after reading Madre del Tierra's 8-12-07 account of the 200 year old Cypress cut down on Soquel Ave. in Aptos. Thank you both for the inspiration. Madre del Tierra and the decimated flora.

"Earthen Trees We Tie"


Now this need for the force of time
Masquerades of the heavenly types
The ones who don't need to feel to know
The known and the knowing the all we can show

~ Shelter this mask with our thoughts of greed
~ Heed the call of the caution of dreams
~ Here in this pattern and on this green earth
~ We are the connected and we are the so hurt

Where are we going in this darkening night
Who will be fed on and where is the right
How shall we drink the blood of the earth
If the vision and the advantage is more than we're worth

How do we become greater than each ourselves
All of us connected to the Earth somehow
We are the vision and the force here between
All the angles and the life and our eternal loving

So we swear by the sound of our being
The edge of this wasteland is here with me
Looking to cut the thrill and our lives
Tempted to be as we shall be next time we're alive


Wendy Buckleman
Written August 13, 2007

I am heart sick at the loss of this gorgeous cypress. I e-mailed the community foundation and told them what I thought although I am sure they do not care. Why are people given the power to destroy our environment I for one will no longer do business in that area. How could I? Who made such a grave decision? How can they get away with this destruction? What is wrong with people? I am tired of this waste and destruction. That was an beautiful tree.
Aptos should be very angry about this and something should be done.

Did any of you ever think to ask if the tree was diseased, dying or otherwise compromising it's surroundings? So quick to judge .... tsk tsk.

But you would have known that had you though to ask.

The top of the tree does not look dead in the first photo. Who determined that the tree was already dead?

This story gave no indication that it was diseased. Santa Cruz County has been hit by a hard Pine and Oak epidemic but Cypress have had little problem. This seems to be a case that if trees are legally protected, like the oaks in Carmel, builders will take the time to save them other wise costs dictate that they be taken down. Protecting a tree in a work site takes a little time but for the long term environmental, aesthetic and biochemical health of an area it is worth it. County regulations on individual land owners trees are pretty much up to the owner. Public outcry is the only chance a tree seems to have right now.

This business as usual occurrence is why I really do not blame the the Community Foundation because saving the tree would have been a costly exception that neither the law nor the public demanded. The People need to give incentives to those who custodian our great arboreal treasures as well as demand a say in their care.

1. The tree showed no signs of disease. It was green and otherwise healthy up to that point.

2. I DO blame the Community Foundation for cutting it down. It was on the edge of the property, which is quite large. It could have easily been accomodated. Foundations aren't dug that deep around here, so there shouldn't have been a major problem with the root system. In addition, the tree would have provided a good source of shade in a sunny area.

My guess is that they had their vision and they weren't willing to compromise. This happens all the time. While this might be the status quo, it still doesn't excuse the Community Foundation for deciding to cut down a community treasure *and* and international resource. We need to start thinking about the Big Picture. No person (or tree) is an island. Everything we do affects others. We need to stop making excuses.