Hopkins: We will plant more trees

The weekend of April 10-11, just before Washington's Arbor Day, someone cut five Douglas fir trees with a handsaw at the Mount Rainier overlook at the end of the concrete Foundation Trail at Green River Community College. 

Those trees were 10 years old and had survived fires in 2002 and 2009 (both started by neighbor kids).  Several of the cut trees were 20 feet tall. 

The trees were in direct line-of-sight between a sitting bench at the overlook and Mount Rainier. They were just reaching a height that would eventually frame the view of the mountain.  If a person stands just a few feet to the north of the bench, the view the mountain and the Soos Creek drainage is unobstructed.

Washington State's official Arbor Day is the second Wednesday of April (this year it was April 14).  Arbor Day and Earth Week are being celebrated by the GRCC Natural Resources program this week.  The Natural Resources students will replant the destroyed trees with 35 Douglas fir seedlings.