Dear Kid,

Have you heard about the Great Tree Crisis?

Sycamore High School decided to chop down 10 big sycamore trees near the track and HS Stadium.

So, without notice or explanation, they did.

You might think people would not notice. You’d be wrong. You might think students would not care. You would again be wrong. You might think the community would hope the school would do the right thing and ignore the situation. Once more, not so much.

There was a hue and cry. There was much ado about trees. There was social media impact. Classroom learning was disrupted by conversation about the trees. Parent shook their heads over the loss misuse of a teachable moment. Students ridiculed the notion that they couldn’t run on the track if there were leaves in the way.

All of which led (several many days later) to this letter from the principal.

We have been hearing a number of concerns regarding the removal of the trees along the turf field and track facility next to the Gregory Center. We are hoping that this information can be helpful for those concerned so that they know this is a process and we are in the beginning stages of a transition in that area.  Hopefully these notes will help our stakeholders understand the rationale for this decision and future plans to address the area:

1. The trees are being removed due to the current and potential damaging effects that they can have to the newer turf field and also the new track surface. Unfortunately, the maintenance of the turf facility and track require special equipment.  Removal of leaves and other debris from the trees can be difficult and potentially damaging to the facility.  In order to properly maintain and protect the recent investment of over $1,000,000 in this facility, we made the decision to remove the trees.
2. The safety of our students running or dodging the debris prior to clean up was a continual and most pressing concern.  The students and athletes using the facility were constantly dealing with debris in their path and on playing surfaces for events.  Maintenance personnel were doing their best to remove it, but cannot be there at all hours of the day.
3. We are planning appropriate plantings/vegetation to replace the trees.  We are looking at bushes and trees that would not spray debris onto the playing or running surfaces.  It will add value and character to the area without doing damage to the facility like the current trees.  The plantings will be completed in the Spring 2016.  We are also looking at adding Sycamore trees to other areas of campus where the debris will not affect our practice and game facilities.

As you are aware, these are all decisions that we make for the protection of our students and of our facilities.  We always strive to do what is best for our students and our district.  It is our hope that the community will trust that we will complete this process and continue to make these type of decisions in the future.  Our apologies for the disruption that the tree removal may have caused to you and or any emotional feelings surrounding the removal.

We will continue to try to make improvements to the campus to not only enhance the learning environment but to be fiscally responsible in maintaining the campus.

Doug Mader, Principal

This did exactly nothing to calm the situation. (And yes, I am silently correcting his grammar.)

So the Lorax and other tree people measured the diameter of the tree stumps (about 200 inches total) to hold the district (and by “district” I mean the school principal) accountable for replacing an equivalent amount of tree trunk. (Turns out, when you’re a public entity and you cut down trees, you have to replace them with an equivalent sum of tree diameters so that you don’t have too big an impact on the environment. It also turns out that not everyone trusts that the district will do this of their own volition. At least not in this decade.)

There will undoubtedly be more to the story.

Stay tuned.

And hug a tree.

Love, Mom

Dear Kid,

I was going to write a Great and Meaningful Blog for today, but then I had to check Facebook because I hadn’t been on in 48 hours and that’s really too long, and on FB I saw a link to 16 secret rules about Disney employees so I took just a quick look which led to a series of Disney characters dressed up for Halloween. When I finished that I realized I HAD to get out of Facebook land—but first I read just a couple of posts, and then I did shut down Facebook. At which point I realized that while I had checked Facebook and one email account I hadn’t checked the other email account and what if Something Important was there? I checked the other account. Nothing important, but there was a link to an article on LinkedIn about words you should never use on your resume and that seemed important so I read the article (nothing new).

Then I really was going to get to work on the Great and Meaningful Blog, but I remembered I was going to look up why fancy soup bowls have wide brims. I’m pretty sure they aren’t called brims, but I didn’t find out because when I got as far as fancy soup I discovered several recipes that looked Most Interesting. When I got to the third recipe, I found a link to a discussion about the Bengals’ football game, and since I hadn’t seen the game I considered it my civic duty to catch up. After which I was really going to write the Great and Meaningful Blog.

Except that by then I had forgotten my original topic. So I decided I’d better start searching My Friend the Internet for Inspiration.

Which of course made me think of the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (it turns out there are tons of extensions on the original including a plush toy) and I remembered that I had stopped part way through a chapter in the book I’m reading (re-reading to be accurate) so I finished the chapter and then I wondered if the author had written anything recently so I looked him up and it turns out that he (Keith Laumer) died in 1993, which would make writing recently unlikely, but I found several titles I haven’t read and requested them from the library which reminded me I have Gone Girl on hold and have to go pick it up.

At which point I remembered that I hadn’t found a topic for the blog, so I decided to get back to work and scan for inspiration.

And you won’t believe what I found!!!

If You Give a Mom the Internet….

Love, Mom

P.S. This is a reminder to focus on studying and not on cat videos.