The City of Lakewood is planning on cutting down a lot of trees along Interlaaken Drive (the picturesque road that crosses the bridge over Lake Steilacoom, and on the western side of the lake to Washington Boulevard) to make sidewalks. It seems the project on the part of Interlaaken to the west of the lake is already starting, where one can see many, many trees marked for removal with red dots. The City says that these were made by utilities/telecommunications companies, but this is preparatory work for eventual sidewalks.

You can see the Interlaaken projects on both sides of the lake mentioned in the City's "transportation plan" on p. 51 of this agenda pdf from May 20, 2024: https://cityoflakewood.us/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-05-20-Council-Agenda.pdf The City has said that these are not all confirmed projects, and one council member has called it more a "wish list". Well -- we don't want Interlaaken on the City's "wish list" for destruction of trees, habitat and quality of life!

We need to tell the City of Lakewood to make a special effort to preserve and protect our big trees. Enough have been destroyed already.

The City of Lakewood says its aim is 40% tree canopy in Lakewood by 2050, yet they keep cutting down Lakewood's big trees, even Garry oaks (like recently on Hipkins, or a couple of years ago on Phillips Road, which are supposed to be protected.

We need big trees because they make Lakewood a nice place to live - we need them also to give us shade, to protect our air, and to protect our water. Specifically, we need these trees on Interlaaken to protect the water in Lake Steilacoom from the run-off caused by the many cars that travel that road every day. These adverse environmental impacts are especially importance since the area in question is located between two salmon-bearing creeks and next to Lakewood has said is priority fish habitat -- Lake Steilacoom.

This destruction of Lakewood's beautiful large trees has to stop. No thought or effort is being put into finding alternatives to their destruction. One Facebook reader proposed for example simply making Interlaaken a one-way road -- what a good idea. Someone else suggested an easement to allow the path to meander between the trees.

Please add your own ideas to your letter using the template below, which will be sent to Mr. Jeff Rimack, Planning & Public Works Director, and the City Council.

Thank you very much for defending Lakewood's trees.