Thank You to all of those who signed our petition “Save the Trees! Tell Maret not to destroy 60 trees before receiving final authorization.”
Over 1,000 signatures were received requesting postponement of the tree destruction at the ECC field by Maret School.
The simple request that the tree destruction and removal be tied to the BZA order and final court ruling was endorsed by more than 1,000 people in a mere 30-day period. It’s worth noting that those 30 days included the holiday period when many neighbors were away. Signatures continue to come in.
Sadly, the ANC dismissively refused to acknowledge the more than 1,000 voices in our community and voted 4 to 2 against the resolution proposed by Commissioner Bruce Sherman at the ANC 3/4G Public Meeting on January 23, 2023. (All meeting materials, including post-meeting video recording can be found here with the Maret Field discussion starting 48 minutes into the recording).
Several incorrect or misleading assertions or suggestions were made at the ANC meeting which need to be addressed.
First and foremost is the suggestion by Commissioner Zeldin, as well as Maret’s Trey Holloway and Marjo Talbot that people who signed the petition did not understand what they were signing. The vast majority of the signatures were collected in person, by Friends of the Field (FoF) volunteers well informed and able to explain the issues involved. Most signers were also provided with two pages of information including not just the fact that Maret is being “asked” to postpone tree work, but specifically stating the number and details of the DC permit they already have to perform this work. As FoF spokesperson David Patton put it Monday night, the point of the petition is that even though you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Concerning the health of the trees at risk, Commissioner Michael Zeldin claimed personal knowledge of the condition of the trees on the ECC field. He classified the trees into three categories: the 4 heritage trees to be transplanted, the “majority” of the trees which he said were, “dead or dying, not salvageable” and “a very small number of trees that are healthy which would lose their life if development plans go forward.” Maret, in their presentation, shared a pie chart showing only a small fraction of trees worth saving. In fact, according to Maret’s own Tree Plan documents, available on their website, the majority of the 73 trees they identified and assessed are in the high end of the “fair” category, not dead or dying. Most trees on the field need a little attention, not elimination.
Specifically, our analysis of Maret's official report on the trees found 45 are in fair or good condition (including 30 in high fair to high good) and only 28 in dead to poor condition.
As far as the number of signatories to the petition, one comment in the Q&A, read by Commissioner Gore, questioned the number of petition signers, over 1,000, as an “infinitesimal” number compared with the number of inhabitants in the ANC. This was a petition, not a survey. All of the inhabitants of the ANC were not asked their opinion. In fact, 1000 signers in a community survey of such short duration is an eye-opening number. And if the ANC should wish to survey the entire neighborhood, we would welcome that effort.
Because the ANC chose to ignore these 1,000 voices, on February 6th Maret intends to move forward with the destruction of sixty (60) trees and dig up the field as they attempt to transplant four large heritage trees. They also intend to move forward with the Sports Facility construction once the final BZA written order is released, knowing that the order will be appealed to the DC Court of Appeals, and fully aware that the Office of Attorney General raised serious questions about the legality of Maret’s plan, as proposed.
We continue to be extremely disappointed with the ANC’s lack of community, and constituent, representation. We add our voices to those representing other large and contested development projects in the community such as the Small Area Plan, Connecticut Ave. Bike Lanes, Civic Core Planning, and manyothers calling on the ANC to fulfill their duty and actually listen to thevoices in the community that you represent.
Friends of the Field
Posted by Kathy Abbruzzetti on behalf of Friends of theField
