Popular downtown Puyallup park will lose 50-year-old tree due to ‘safety concerns’
Crews will remove a large tree this month in Pioneer Park in downtown Puyallup due to safety concerns about its failing health, city officials said this week.
“We know the Port Orford Cedar is at least 50 years old,” city spokesperson Eric Johnson told The News Tribune in an email Thursday.
It was planted by the city, he said, and today its roots are in trouble.
“The arborist told us that he believes the main reason for the tree’s decline is root damage,” Johnson wrote. “The tree is surrounded by pavement, and the pavement has prevented water and moisture from entering the root system. With less water entering the roots, this has caused the tree to decline in health.”
A post on the city’s website Jan. 9 said that the tree is near the park’s performance stage.
“We received the report from a professional arborist, which essentially told us that the tree is trending towards high risk, and it has been trending that direction for some time,” Parks and Recreation Director Cody Geddes said in the statement. “Given the high pedestrian traffic that the park receives, it is important that we mitigate any risk associated with the tree falling on someone or the stage. Safety is our top priority, and the decision to remove the tree is our commitment to protecting our park visitors.”
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The city will hire crews to take down the tree Jan. 30, and they will close part of the park during that work.
“On the same day, the city, in partnership with Pierce Conservation District, is hosting a tree-planting event in Bradley Lake Park to coincide with the cedar’s removal,” the post said. “Residents are invited to volunteer for the event and help us plant new trees, symbols of growth and renewal that define the City’s Tree City USA status.”
Residents can sign up at piercecd.org.
“The event will culminate with planting a new cedar tree to honor the memory of the Port Orford cedar in Pioneer Park,” the city’s website says.
City officials are also considering having a wood sculptor turn the stump in Pioneer Park into a piece of art.
What is the story behind the trees in Pioneer Park?
Holly O’Brien, the curator at the Puyallup Historical Society at Meeker Mansion, told The News Tribune via email that no Port Orford Cedar trees are listed in the city’s historic tree inventory.
O’Brien said Lori Price, a former historian for the city, wrote articles published in the 1990s and early 2000s about the area’s history.
Price wrote about “several beautification projects that have taken place in Pioneer Park over the years beginning as early as the 1900s,” O’Brien said.
New trees were also planted as part of the different library building projects in the park through the years, O’Brien said.
“Lori also mentioned a large planting project in 1991 during which around 500 new trees were planted at parks, schools, businesses, and private homes,” O’Brien wrote. “There does not seem to be any connection to the tree in historic records in the museum’s archives.”
O’Brien also pointed to information from the United States Forest Service that Port Orford Cedars have a historical connection to Coos Bay, Oregon and northwestern California.
This story was originally published January 12, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
