Woman speaks for the trees of east Petaluma

Several residents in a northeast Petaluma neighborhood are mobilizing to protect their trees from the steely-toothed saws of their homeowners association, which wants to cut down at least nine perennial plants throughout the development. They are also combating the decision to use a herbicide on their properties, worried about the intangible effect that could have on the overall ecosystem.

In an effort to fight back with a governing document that could protect the trees and provide a legal recourse, a majority of Capri Creek homeowners, residing on eight small cul-de-sacs along Capri Avenue, have backed a two-part resolution calling for tree maintenance and totally abstaining from the use of the chemical spray Garlon.

Gina Sequeira, a wildlife researcher and resident since 2016, authored the resolution, which has been delivered to the HOA Board of Directors, three landscaping companies that service the development, and the Eugene Burger Management Corporation that oversees the complex.

“There’s very little tree trimming that goes on around here,” Sequeira said. “There’s mostly tree exterminations.”

Two Camphor trees near her property are slated to be cut because they had “outgrown the common area where they are planted, mostly between driveways,” according to a letter she received from the HOA board on April 9. The notice dictated a date for removal, April 25, and said two arborists had been consulted to determine which trees in the neighborhood needed to be chopped.

One of those was beside Sequeira’s driveway - a sprawling Camphor that provides immense shade for her home and obscures her second-story views from any onlookers in the street or the senior mobile home behind Capri Avenue. Since there was a family of birds making their home on one of the branches, she was able to postpone the removal until nesting season ends in the fall.

“The board will not disclose what trees, which species, where they’re located,” she said. “I asked for the information - any and all records related to tree removal and herbicide use - and they would only give me the minutes. The minutes are very vague; they’re very fuzzy. They don’t tell you which trees they want removed.”

Over the last four months, Sequeira has been devoting much of her time to rallying support within the neighborhood. She has contacted numerous departments across the city and state to seek out advice, hopeful there might be regulations that could protect her beloved vegetation.

Petaluma’s Tree Advisory Committee chairman Matt Cory has been “encouraging” Sequeira and giving her advice on ways to push back. The city has no jurisdiction since it’s private property, and the various species of trees in Capri Creek are not protected.

“What Gina has done is really good,” Cory said. “She’s really taken the ball and running with it.”

According to the minutes report from an HOA board meeting on Jan. 9, the four-member board began discussing the removal of nine trees in April, in addition to several other tree removal projects.

Attempts to reach former HOA board president Josh Sutton were unsuccessful. Cynthia Huisman, who took over as president at some point after the board’s annual meeting on June 5, declined to be interviewed. She submitted a comment on behalf of the board, indicating there will be continued discussion at the next gathering on Sept. 4.

“No association board member speaks alone as collectively we speak on behalf of the association,” Huisman said in an email. “The board will be discussing this very important issue at our next board meeting so that the directors can evaluate the tree removal issues and review the advice of the association’s experts to make the best decisions for the association and its homeowners.”

A request for comment from EBMC senior vice president Carra Clampitt, who oversees developments in Napa and Sonoma counties, was not answered.

Sequeira said the HOA board has been generally unresponsive since the June meeting, which she and several other homeowners attended. The meeting became contentious, and she said she was “silenced” by Sutton when she began decrying the board’s intentions.

“We were supposed to be given three to five minutes to speak, and he cut me off in less than two minutes and wouldn’t let me speak,” she said.

Sequeira has assembled a sizable swath of support amongst the neighborhood’s 52 homeowners. She has received signatures from more than half of the Capri Creek residents, and some residents, like Hope Stewart, who has been living in the neighborhood for 21 years, have not been satisfied with the board’s response.

“The trees were a big topic of conversation (at the annual meeting),” Stewart said. “When I asked, ‘OK, if you take down a tree, what are you going to replace it with?’ The answer was nothing.”

Multiple trees have already been cut on the northern-most court, exposing the homes to unfiltered sunshine over the long summer days.

Sequeira said Sutton, who lives next door to her, claimed the Camphor tree between their homes is causing property damage, although it was not immediately evident apart from some cracks in the driveway. In the past, he cited the unkempt roots that have damaged water lines in other parts of the development as a reason for preemptively cutting trees rather than simply pruning them.

“The board seems to be of one solid mind, and that it was the wrong kind of tree to start with. So the roots are pushing far and wide under people’s foundations,” Stewart said. “That’s the whole argument, I think. If it’s not playing havoc (now) … it will in the future. As far as I was concerned, it was a weak excuse.”

The herbicide in question is called Garlon, which is comprised of Triclopyr, an organic compound that breaks down in soil, degrades rapidly in water and remains active in decaying vegetation for about three months. Trichloropyridinol, a byproduct of the breakdown, can live in soil for up to a year.

If not applied correctly, without precautions to reduce off-target drift, animals and other members of the ecosystem could be exposed to it.

“I have two dogs,” Stewart said. “I don’t want (herbicides) anywhere near my property … I certainly don’t want them to use any (herbicide) stuff on the roots of the trees to kill it.”

While most of the Capri Creek neighbors are backing Sequeira’s cause, some are keeping everything in perspective.

Kathleen Callahan, a resident since 2015, said she’s supporting her efforts and hopes to see the issue resolved amicably. At the same time, she also acknowledged the wildfires that decimated thousands of trees and homes in Sonoma County last year, and is appreciative that she’s able to own a home at all.

“I feel grateful to have a place to live, just to be honest,” Callahan said.

(Contact News Editor Yousef Baig at yousef.baig@arguscourier.com or 776-8461, and on Twitter @YousefBaig.)