I read with some amusement, but some frustration, the recent article regarding the trees cut down along Viking Avenue (“Business owner will replace trees he cut down,” page A1, July 3 Herald). My first thought was, here we go again with the mayor’s love affair for trees!

Don’t get me wrong, I was not amused by the fact that trees were removed, but more by the mayor’s romanticizing these trees as “maples, a tree for which Poulsbo has long been known,” tying them into local Indian lore. It’s been a long time since I took dendrology in college, but I do know what a maple tree looks like, in particular our native big leaf maple, and these trees were not maples. Perhaps the mayor should ask Poulsbo’s full-time, on-the-payroll arborist to properly educate her on this.

I can appreciate that this kind of breaks her heart, but considering that the trees were sandwiched along a narrow strip between the road and sidewalk, I doubt that they did much to “help control stormwater.” More emotional rhetoric. The low bushes, grass and weeds probably did more. On the contrary, deciduous trees such as these help to increase the cost of maintenance every year as their leaves fall and must be removed from roadside drainage systems (perhaps in the future, native conifers and shrubs might be a better option).

Now, to my point of frustration. I recently reported that significant sedimentation over a period of six-plus hours had occurred in Dogfish Creek above where it crosses Highway 305. Keep in mind that this happened during a time in which we have not seen significant rainfall in two months. The response that I received to my request that the city look into the cause of this pollution of a fish stream was, “There is no building going on above the stream. Maybe kids or a dog playing in the stream? With this hot weather … many creatures are looking for cool water.”

I grew up in Poulsbo and, as a kid, did my share of playing in streams, and I guarantee that there was nothing that I could ever had done to create a situation to cause hours of erosion and sedimentation as what was occurring on this stream. Obviously, at least to me, the mayor and staff were not interested enough to get off the street (even if they came to look at the stream at all) to determine what created this sedimentation and whether it will cause further damage during our next significant rainfall, whenever that might occur. Out of sight, out of mind? Perhaps.

I also would like to comment that I agree with Mr. Heinemann that “it is time to change out our leadership …” During the last election, I actually thought about running for mayor myself, but unfortunately don’t think I could financially handle the cut in pay.

Paul Tweiten
Poulsbo

Editor’s note: While Mayor Erickson did say she believed the trees were maples, it was the reporter who noted that one of the historical Suquamish names for Poulsbo reportedly means “place of the maples.”