April Burbank

Free Press Staff Writer

Ann Taylor chained herself to a tree near the Burlington waterfront Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to stop the city from cutting down the cottonwood. The city plans to remove the tree to make room for a wider bike path.

Taylor, 63, called out to people bicycling or jogging by: "Are you a local?" "Do you like this tree?" "Can I give you the mayor's number?"

Some didn't stop — "Some people can never be bothered about anything," she commented to reporters standing nearby — but for those who did, she scrawled the number for Mayor Miro Weinberger's office on a notepad using hot-pink felt-tip pen.

RELATED: Burlington breaks ground on wider bike path

The chain was loose, its segments held together by carabiners. At Taylor's feet was a phone book. "I've been using it extensively," she said. Taylor's dog, named Bode Miller, sat nearby.

"Save the tree!" Taylor said. "I'm an old hippie, and this is what we do."

City tree experts peg the cottonwood's age at about 50 years.

Burlington's popular bike path is in the midst of a major makeover. When construction is complete, the 8-foot-wide bike path will be expanded to 11 feet, with new painted markings, signs and gravel shoulders.

Taylor wants the mayor to reassess whether cutting down the tree is necessary. Maybe, she suggested, the bike path could just be narrower in that section.

That's not a good option, according to Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Director Jesse Bridges. The tree's shallow roots already are tearing up the bike path, and cottonwoods are so difficult for infrastructure that a city ordinance prohibits new ones from being planted in parks and streets.

"It's really the wrong tree in the wrong location," Bridges said.

Even if the bike path were left at the same width, Bridges said, the construction would still affect the tree. And in the coming decades, the tree might become structurally unsound.

Taylor runs a physical therapy and massage therapy office on Main Street, about a block away. When she found out the tree was going to be taken down, she sprang into action.

"It's certainly my first tree protest," Taylor said. At about 4 p.m. Wednesday, she said she planned to stay with the old cottonwood until dark.

Bridges said a contractor had been scheduled to cut the tree down Tuesday. Bridges delayed the tree removal in order to discuss concerns with Taylor and others who were upset. Ultimately, he said, the city wants to prepare that section of the bike path this fall, including removal of the tree.

"We don't take the decision lightly," Bridges said, noting that Burlington has an arborist and tree team to consider tree issues carefully. "We plant way more trees a year than we take down."

Note: Taylor's office is on Main Street. The location was incorrect in an earlier version of this article.

Contact April Burbank at 660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank