A huge victory for Save the Trees

Congratulations are in order to our friend Steve Zemke and all of the courageous North Seattle neighbors, who won another tremendous court victory today when a judge barred Seattle Public Schools from razing a greenbelt at Ingraham High:

King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick on Monday ordered the district to leave untouched a grove of more than 60 trees they wanted cut down to make way for a construction project on the northwest Seattle campus.

The pro-tree folks were thrilled with the ruling. They're challenging the district's assertion that felling the mature Douglas firs, Western red cedars and Pacific madrones wouldn't harm the environment. That challenge could hold up development permits required by the city.

To avoid those potential delays, the district tried another route. They withdrew the permits for the project and told the neighbors they were going to cut down the trees, then reapply for the city permits.

Opponents accused the district of being a "schoolyard bully," trying to pull a fast one by avoiding public process.

In issuing his preliminary injunction Monday, Erlick agreed that the approach wasn't justified.

The fight is unfortunately not over because district administration is being asinine, pledging to fight the injunction instead of just complying with the court's decision.

This has gone on long enough. It's time for the school district to admit it erred, and take the expansion of Ingraham High back to the drawing board.