Activists protest suburban tree-cut.

Byline: SCOTT MABEN The Register-Guard

Activists erected banners Monday and one protester climbed onto a suspended platform at a planned housing development in the Santa Clara area to protest the clearing of 9 1/2 acres of private land long regarded by neighbors as a de facto park and nature preserve.

Two backhoes used to fell and stack dozens of cottonwoods and other trees last week sat silent on the site, at the end of Wendover Street east of River Road. A few protesters, some with their children, stood guard to try to prevent any further tree cutting or the removal of piles of trees and brush.

Claiming that the property was cleared without a permit and in violation of a tree-removal ordinance, they declared the site a "crime scene" and said their "neighborhood blockade" was to "protect evidence."

A woman going by the alias "Heaven" spent Sunday night and Monday on a platform suspended by ropes above the entrance to the lot. She said she doesn't live in the neighborhood but came to the site to "slow the wheels of destruction" and help call attention to the loss of a beloved wooded patch in the middle of suburban development.

"I'm staying until I know they're not putting up a housing development here, at least not another one like you see all around here," she said.

Kate Perle, who lives on Wendover next to the lot, was out of town when the clearing began a week ago Monday. She returned home Friday to a radically changed landscape.

"I left a forest and came back to a clear-cut," said Perle, who works for Full Circle Community Farm, a nonprofit organic grower on nearby farmland. "Now it's hard to imagine what it looked like before."

The owners of the land, members of the Huling family of Eugene, declined comment and referred questions to Poage Engineering & Surveying Inc. of Eugene. No one at Poage was available for comment Monday.

The owners have yet to file any documents with the city indicating the number of units or other particulars about the proposed development.

Perle said neighbors loved the little pocket of nature, complete with a scenic slough and old filbert orchard, and had enjoyed it for decades. The land was home to many native plants, dozens of species of birds, squirrels and other wildlife, including the Western pond turtle, a threatened species, Perle said, adding, "It was just such a precious, precious spot."

She and her partner, Kevin Jones, contacted the owner several times in recent years to inquire about buying the land. They said they were told a few years ago it was worth $100,000, and last week were informed that the price was now $1 million, Perle said.

She said she's willing to raise money, reach out to land trusts and other organizations and do whatever she can to prevent the land from becoming another dense residential development. "There's still potential here. It's not beyond us to stop right here right now," she said.

She said she sees an opportunity for the property owner to work with neighbors to turn the lot into something unique. Her vision includes reforesting part of the site, improving habitat protection along the waterway, making it an area park, putting in community garden plots and building a cluster of low-income housing for farm workers.

Those who are upset by the development plans said they are also frustrated because neither Lane County nor the city of Eugene has claimed jurisdiction for enforcing the county's tree ordinance on the property, which is within the city's urban growth boundary but hasn't been annexed to the city.

When Jones contacted each agency, the county told him the "urban transition area" was the city's responsibility and the city told him to call the county.

A county tree-removal ordinance covers the urban transition area, but the county agreed to let the city enforce the ordinance between 1990 and 1995. When the county permanently adopted the ordinance in 1996, it didn't renew the enforcement agreement, said Mike McKerrow, land use management supervisor for the city.

"It wasn't a high priority item for the county or city staff at the time," McKerrow said.

The county told the city last week it considers the matter in the city's jurisdiction, he said, but the city staff disagrees. The city attorney's office is working on a legal interpretation to sort it out. The interpretation is due today.

If the city concludes it has the authority to enforce the tree ordinance, the next likely step would be to order the landowner to stop work on the development site until the city could document how many trees have been removed, McKerrow said.

If it's in the county's jurisdiction, he said, "the city would work with the county as soon as possible to determine what the appropriate next step would be."

The property owner could face civil penalties if found to have violated the tree-cutting ordinance.

One of the tree standards restricts removal of trees measuring 8 inches in diameter or larger to five per acre. That would limit the owner to taking out no more than 47 medium to large trees on the Wendover site.

Protesters said Monday that they counted at least 70 and up to 100 trees of that size lying on the ground and didn't want to let them be removed until authorities could get an accurate count.

CAPTION(S):

CHRIS PIETSCH / The Register-Guard Protesters, including one who has camped out on a suspended platform, are trying to prevent further cutting or removal of trees from a property on Wendover Street.