Son of Mathison Park donors urges City of Burien, residents to block Port of Seattle’s tree cutting plan

Commentary by Eric Mathison

The Port of Seattle, operator of Sea-Tac International Airport, is planning to destroy five large, legacy Douglas Fir trees at a forested neighborhood park owned by the City of Burien. The Port also seeks to cut down an additional tree to access the targeted trees.

The park is outside the airport’s designated flight path as well as its buffer zone. It is not within Burien’s adjacent redevelopment zone between Des Moines Memorial Drive and 8^th Avenue South, which is designated for industrial use.

The park is in a residential neighborhood. The Port has not revealed plans, yet, to cut down identical trees on residents’ private property surrounding the park or between the airport and the park.

This is a vast overreach by the airport into Burien’s parks system.

In 1999, my father donated to the city the five acres he had lived on for 55 years and where he and our mother had raised five children.

According to the legal agreement signed by my father and the city, the valuable five-acre view property containing Mathison Park will revert back to the Mathison family if the city of Burien does not maintain it in its forested state.

Eleanor Carver Nelson and Dorothy C. Carver donated an additional 2/3 acre on the south side of the park in 2003 in honor of their grandfather, Herman Nickolas Peters, who homesteaded the property in 1889. To read about the fascinating history of the park go to https://www.historylink.org/File/9859.

The Port announced less than two weeks ago that the Port felt that the destruction of the trees would not have a significant adverse impact on the environment. Therefore, no Environmental Impact Statement was needed. Public comment was fast tracked to end on Thursday, Sept. 11 at 4 p.m. My allies at Defenders of the Highline Forest tell me an environmental assessment is much different than a detailed environmental impact statement. A detailed scientific study takes much longer than a hurried 15-day public comment period.

While there would be no adverse environmental impact over at the airport or on its designated flight path and buffer zone, there would be great environmental harm at the park. Instead of leaving a dense suburban area and walking into a tranquil oasis with trees on all sides and, perhaps, walking down a dirt path surrounded by dense forest all around and strolling up the gentle ADA asphalt path, park-goers will confront views of warehouses, vast parking lots and more houses.

Trees are great for cleaning the air and improving people’s health, especially in communities that must contend with a neighboring airport featuring planes that spew noise and pollution overhead.

It would be interesting to see the consultant’s report that justified the Port claiming the park trees in a residential area could impede aircraft during takeoff or landing—if not in the past or currently but maybe in five years. Apparently, surrounding identical trees on private land do not now or maybe will not in the future impede aircraft. The Port notes the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) requires aviation safety but we don’t know if that means getting rid of those five slow-growing Doug Firs west of the flight path.

At last count, 52 million people a year have flown in and out of Sea-Tac safely despite those residential trees.

I’m no scientist but I can’t figure out how planes flying over a partially-denuded Mathison Park could make the sharp turn onto the airport runways or turn so fast toward the park when taking off.

The best-case scenarios would be if Port officials admitted, “Well, maybe this time we overreached too far. No harm, no foul. Let forget the whole thing.”

Or Burien city leaders, channeling the courage of previous Burien and other airport community officials, could declare, “Nice try, Port guys, but we represent the best interests of our citizens.”

I don’t think that those scenarios will happen without citizen involvement. At the very least, we need to slow down this speeding train—sorry to mix transportation modes—and really think about this. An independent, scientific, thorough study is needed.

How to Give Input

Please contact Port of Seattle officials immediately. This is not a partisan issue. Environmentalists, tree—lovers, clean-air advocates, Mathison Park (533 South 146^th Street) neighbors, government skeptics, and others should all get involved. The public comment period is very tight. Input must be submitted by Thursday, Sept. 11 at 4 p.m. Send comments to Steve Rybolt, Port of Seattle, Aviation Environment and Sustainability Department, P.O. Box 68727, Seattle WA 98168. Phone number is 206-787-5525. Email is Rybolt.S@portseattle.org. Include mailing address when submitting comments.

Maybe more importantly, contact our Burien city officials. City council members can be contacted at council@burienwa.gov.

Burien City Hall’s phone number is 206-241-4647 while the parks department’s number is 206-988-3700. City Manager Adolfo Bailon can be reached at adolfob@burienwa.gov.

I plan to speak at the Monday, Sept. 8th Burien City Council meeting at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is held at city hall, 400 S.W. 152^nd Street. I welcome fellow speakers on the subject or just come to offer support. You can sign up to speak one hour before the meeting or calling 206-241-4647. You can also sign up on the public comment form at council@burienwa.gov.

Mathison Park is located at 533 S 146th Street, Burien, WA 98168:

Eric Mathison is a longtime Burien journalist, former Highline Times newspaper Editor, and contributor to South King Media. He has covered local government, community issues, and the environment for decades.

Mathison Park was donated to the City of Burien in 1999 by Mathison’s family, who gifted the five-acre property where they had lived for more than half a century.