Tuesday is Dues-day: Trees

Tuesday is Dues-day. The dues are schooling yourself on how our local governance is organized, who are the players, what are the screw-ups, where is the money and what things get reported?

You’re a citizen, an advocate for democracy with this first step, paying attention. Today is the first day of Spring, last week was Arbor week and Encinitas has recently been officially designated a Tree City, USA. All of this warrants today's Citizen Tip = Trees.

“To use something as elegant as a tree. . . Imagine this design assignment: design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons, and self-replicates. Then say, why don’t we knock that down and write on it.” - William McDonough

McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle, has stated the wealth that a tree represents in the above quote. In city within a culture within a country that disallows many conversations about anything that isn’t a commodity or in some way monetized according to economics from the past, trees can be a marginal subject at best or a smug hippy reference at worst. But anticipating our 21st century needs and stressors requires deeping conversations and alternative ways of framing our problems here in Encinitas. Trees having worth beyond their value as merely commodities, view or root obstructions or lawn ornaments begs public exposure, community knowledge.

Oh, and the 2009 cutting down 12 trees (one with a tree sitter) in Leucadia's Orpheus Park that overlooks Paul Ecke Central Elementary School represents one of the biggest screw-ups ever by the council majority of Dan Dalager, Jerome Stocks and Jim Bond. Last week's Sunshine Ordinance posts touched on their public relations nightmare here, here and here. Sunshine and trees and the misuse of email are all intertwined in this political stew. It's a good story to know and filled with facts unknown to many outside of Leucadia.

Both Dadla Ponizil and Elizabeth Taylor were Environment Commission members at the time of this Orpheus Park incident. Chris Hazeltine, mentioned in this clip, was the Parks and Recreation head.  He has since moved on to Carlsbad where he's still cutting down trees.

 Encinitas favorite tree expert, Mark Wisniewski, ran out of time and had to return the next week to complete his talk. The videographer did a very poor job of capturing the video monitor where Mark's slides illustrated what he was saying.

    

In honor of all the people who went to city hall to stand up at city council for the sake of the trees, this theme will be central to a dozen clips this week.