PORT ANGELES — Two pro-Lincoln Park tree activists appeared before Port of Port Angeles commissioners Monday with a bit of history, a song and a petition.
“A lot of people are concerned, not just a couple of hippies,” William Hunt told the three-man panel.
Hunt and Devon Graywolf, campaigning under the name Olympic Mountain People, showed commissioners what they said was the wording from the original Lincoln Park deed signed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908.
The lyrical, poetic-worded deed included “to have and to hold,” which Graywolf compared with marriage, with the forest the spouse.
Olympic Mountain People are steadfastly opposed to cutting tall conifers that populate Lincoln Park ahead of William R. Fairchild International Airport, which the port operates.
Acting under Federal Aviation Administration rules, the port wants most of the park’s trees felled so it can recover several hundred feet of runway in the airport’s approach.
Hunt and Graywolf also gave the commissioners a new petition purportedly bearing 159 signatures asking that the Lincoln Park evergreens be saved.
Counting petitions submitted to the Port Angeles City Council — which operates the park — the total number of signatures is now 1,050, they said.
“It’s not just William and me,” Graywolf said.
Several plans for tree removal have been considered, from 45 trees — approved by the Port Angeles City Council in September 2010 — to a plan to clearcut most of the park.
It will be at least a year before any trees are cut, Jeff Robb port executive director, said.
There will be two public hearings regarding the trees, giving opponents of the plan to present their argument, Robb said.
In other action Monday, the commissioners reviewed and approved the port’s Central Waterfront Master Plan.
The central waterfront area stretches from the port’s log yard to Boat Haven.
Planned improvements include an expanded Terminal 3 to accommodate U.S. Navy and Homeland Security vessels and cruise ships, additional buildings in Boat Haven and relocation of the boatyard to the inland side of Marina Drive, said David Hagiwara, port director of trade and development.
It is important that the port doesn’t jump into short-term changes that could affect the port’s plan for long-term growth, Hagiwara said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
