Proposals threatening to clear-cut Seattle’s lush construction crane canopy came under fire today as development preservation activists packed City Hall.

The towering steel structures currently provide the city with about 28 percent crane canopy cover, making it the thickest crane forest in the nation.

“There’s a whole ecosystem of backpack-toting worker ants that need places to grow and multiply under this canopy,” said Angela Pickard, head of a group called Crane Your Neck to the Future (CYNF) during public comment at the Seattle City Council chambers. “Who else will help ensure dying parts of Seattle are properly sifted through and decomposed? This is the circle of life you’re disrupting!”

Councilmembers assured activists that they have nothing to worry about, and that if the crane canopy shrinks over time, it’s probably beyond anyone’s control. Councilmembers reminded them that anyone chaining themselves to cranes would be promptly arrested.

“So, really, just stop and find something better to do,” said Councilmember Mike O’Brien. “Don’t you guys have day-jobs under a canopy or something anyway?”

Protester Ron Hibbard said he lamented the councilmembers’ blatant dismissal of the issue and the inevitability of the crane canopy’s decline if no one wants to make a stand for protecting it.

“Think of what the skyline would even look like, especially at Christmas, without all of those cranes wrapped up in bright, colorful lights — you’d be left with what?” Hibbard asked. “Trees, sky, silky gray fog, mountains and an iconic work of architecture–that’s it?”

Hibbard shook his head and looked up at a downtown construction crane site on 5th Avenue.

“They won’t be here forever.”