City Condemns Healthy Ficus Tree,
Then Issues Last-Minute Reprieve

James Allardice
Mirror staff writer

   Last Wednesday night; I got a call from my editor, asking me to take a photo of a tree at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 18th Street. She went on to say that it was a healthy, mature Ficus tree which the City had targeted for removal because, according to a notice sent to people in the neighborhood, its “extensive root system” was slated “for pruning in order to allow the necessary sidewalk repairs [and] it has been determined that the estimated line at which the roots would need to be cut could destabilize the tree, and the overall size of the tree in relation to over overhead lines is a concern. Should the tree fall it would take the overhead lines down with it.”
   Alexander Man, Chairman of the Federation of Organizations for Conserving Urban Space [FOCUS], disagreed; noting that the tree’s crown was about six feet below the electrical wires.
   The notice also said that the tree would be completely removed within seven days of the date on the notice – July 25. Last Thursday was August. 2. The seven-day grace period was over.
   Thursday morning, I headed for the corner of 18th and Michigan to see the twentysomething Ficus tree whose possible removal had my editor and other residents so enraged. When I arrived, I found a large, beautiful tree with yellow caution tape strung loosely around it, a torn up section of sidewalk and the controversial roots exposed.
I shot the scene, the tree itself and the exposed roots from several different angles, before heading to the office and phoning the Community Forester, Walter Warriner.
   Perhaps he had already been berated once too often, or perhaps he felt he had been wronged in the past by some member of the media, or perhaps I’d caught him at a bad time, but the moment I mentioned the tree at 18th and Michigan, Warriner assumed a defensive tone.
   The “Notice of Intent to Remove/Replace Street Tree” was not an indication of the City’s final plans, he said. “The purpose of posting the notice of removal is to contact the community,” Warriner said. Surely, I suggested, there were better ways of alerting the community of a possible removal.
“We’ve taken input from the community and we are now at a stage of looking at possible alternatives,” Warriner said. “If, in the event no safe, feasible alternative is found, my recommendation will be to remove the tree … purely from a public safety standpoint.”
   Warriner indicated he was meeting with City engineers that day, and said if they went forward with plans to remove the tree, it could begin as early as Friday. The tree was still standing Friday morning when I drove by it on my way to work, Later that day, I made a follow-up call, curious to know whether our favorite Ficus would survive to the weekend, but the Community Forester was unavailable. My editor checked Saturday and the tree was still standing.
   On Monday, there was some action at Michigan and 18th. A large pile of dirt had risen next to the tree and workers appeared to be covering up the previously exposed roots. I immediately called Warriner, but he didn’t return my call, and when I called again about 4 p.m., I was told he’d left for the day. It didn’t bode well for our tree.
   I finally connected with Warriner Tuesday morning. I asked him about the action at the site I’d seen on Monday, workers seeming to cover the roots.
   “We decided to use an alternative method,” Warriner said. The grade of the sidewalk will be raised, so that it will pass over the tree’s root system, eliminating the need to cut the roots. Warriner indicated that the project would probably be finished by the end of the day Tuesday and we could close the book on the tree at 18th Street and Michigan.