CRD Watch Homepage

Great Turnout by Concerned Citizens and Response at Rally to Save the Majestic Sequoia at Victoria Centennial Square

With a week-old petition quickly garnering over 1300 signatures, numerous members of the public showed up in solidarity on Saturday September 7, 2024 to show their support to save the mighty sequoia in front of Victoria City Hall.

Numerous speakers spoke in solidarity of the tree and other trees that have been proposed to be taken down. They also noted that the brief case the City of Victoria has made to take down the tree seemed half-baked, and meaningless in the face of not only a lack of specific data to show that it posed some sort of existential crisis, but that the tree is clearly causing no harm, and appearing to be no real threat to its surroundings.

Those who spoke were quick to point out, instead that the tree is doing an excellent service that we are in deep debt too, acting as a giant air conditioning unit at the heart of the capital, in an area that would otherwise be a concrete heat dome during summers, while at the same time acting as a giant biological machine sequestering vast amounts of carbon, which small columnar replacement trees, could not hope to do in decades, let alone in their entire lifetimes.

Speakers at the event included: Frances Litman, Grace Golightly, Sasha Izard, Janet Simpson, Jan Firstbrook, speakers representing the unhoused population, and with the participation of those in the rally also speaking.

All presentations went well and were much appreciated, as was audience attendance and active engagement.

Although no corporate media reported on the event (the corporate agenda seeming to be more important for them than critical inquiry on issues important to locals and the environment, as has so often been the case); genuine local citizen-based journalism for the Greater Victoria region did make an appearance with both Creatively United and CRD Watch present.

With plenty of good energy and ideas to go around, those present hope to build on this gathering and continue to increase solidarity and organization regarding the threatened urban forest canopy in the Greater Victoria region.

Photos by Andrew Argyle Garbutt





See also: Let the Sequoia live! by Grace Golightly – CRD Watch Homepage

https://www.change.org/p/save-the-mighty-sequoia-tree-at-centennial-square-victoria-bc-from-wrongful-demolition