Mighty Cedar Comes Down

To the angry hornet sound of chain saws and flying wood chips, the 60 foot tall Blue Atlas Cedar tree growing alongside the Sonora Veteran’s Memorial Hall came down Wednesday afternoon.

Limb by limb, chunk by chunk, the 60-plus year-old cedar had to be carefully removed around power lines and between buildings to make way for a new handicapped parking area at the veteran’s building on Jackson Street in downtown.

Arborists said too much of the old tree’s root base would have to be cut to allow room for the new parking area.

Dave Alley, contracted to do the cutting, says chopping into the roots would have spelled certain death to the mighty tree, and a danger to property and passers by.

“That tree would come down. It´s just that no one would know exactly when.” Alley says.

Because of the threat, city and county officials made the difficult decision to cut down the tree. Another Blue Atlas Cedar, a native of the Mediterranean, is growing in the downtown’s Courthouse Square Park, next to the bus stop.

Jackson Street between Washington and Stewart streets will be closed tomorrow and Friday for most of the day.