The 85-year-old tree isn't expected to live after a group of strangers hacked off many of its branches
By Mark Baker
The Register-Guard
Appeared in print: Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009
Dude, where's my tree?
If you're Aaron Parecki, formerly of Eugene, it was mostly on the ground when he arrived in town from Portland on Saturday, Halloween of all days, and witnessed the homeowner horror story he'd dealt with for two hours by phone on Friday.
"I was completely astounded," said Parecki, a 2009 University of Oregon graduate who moved to Portland in September and rented out the house he owns with his father at 1910 Charnelton St. to six college students. "I was totally in shock."
Most branches of the towering incense cedar tree in front of the house, at West 19th Avenue and Charnelton, were gone. Hacked off with machetes. By unidentified strangers.
"It was bizarre," neighbor Will Shortt said. "They scalped that thing."
The incident has turned a robust, much-admired tree that dates from the 1920s into a freakish skeleton that is likely to die within a year.
Shortt, who lives across the street on West 19th, said he was riding his bicycle home from work about 5:30 p.m. Friday when he saw the destruction. One man, Shortt said, "was way up the tree. He seemed to be in charge." Shortt asked the man, who said his name was Jorge Diaz, if he had a city permit to cut the tree. The man, who did not speak English well, said he didn't, but that he had permission from the residents to trim it for boughs to make holiday wreaths.
That's when Shortt called Parecki to find out what was going on. Parecki had no idea.
This led to a series of angry phone conversations with the tenants, neighbors, police, and the man trimming the tree and his girlfriend, Parecki said.
Apparently, someone, possibly Diaz, came by the house earlier in the week and asked if he could trim the tree. One of the roommates said it would be OK, according to Sam Mowry, a Lane Community College student who lives at the house. Then on Friday, Diaz and others came and started cutting away at the limbs about 11 a.m. and worked until it was almost dark, Mowry said. "They looked like they knew what they were doing, and we assumed the owner had asked (them to cut it)," Mowry said.
Per Parecki's instructions, Shortt told the men to stop cutting the tree and put Diaz on the phone with Parecki.
"I don't think they thought they were doing anything wrong because they stuck around (for 60 to 90 minutes)" after that, Shortt said.
Shortt called Nathaniel Sperry of Eugene-based Sperry Tree Care, who came over to assess the damage. Shortt also called the police. And he asked Diaz and the others for identification, but they said they had none. Parecki said he got a phone number and a Eugene address from Diaz and arranged to meet him at the house on Saturday, but Diaz never showed up. When Parecki called the number Saturday, the person who answered said they did not know anyone named Jorge Diaz. Parecki could not find the address he was given on a map.
Eugene police told him there was nothing they could do, as the cutters had the tenants' permission, so it was not a criminal matter. Police spokeswoman Jenna LaBounty confirmed that Tuesday.
Sperry came back on Saturday to examine the tree, estimated at 85 years old, and determined that it should come down because it's so damaged it would probably live only another year, Parecki said. He paid Sperry $450 to haul away the branches Monday. The cutters had left the boughs behind. The estimate to bring the tree down? $1,800.
"It's a beautiful tree," said Shortt, who has lived in the College Hill neighborhood for 10 years. "It was a sentinel on the hill."
