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Dave Cathey

Barren of the Trees

Is more shade due Fort Marcy park or has the time come for ‘tree equity’?

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Editor’s Note: 

The old axiom goes people here move on Santa Fe time, and that goes for the city that serves it. Ask any business owner along Guadalupe Street. However, when Zozobra Event Chair Ray Sandoval intimated Old Man Gloom wouldn’t burn this year if a dozen trees weren’t cleared posthaste, Santa Fe time sped up.

On Aug. 13, SFR published an interview with Sandoval, who detailed why and how the trees were felled. Last week, we covered a neighborhood notification at Fort Marcy park that happened to fall a couple weeks after the trees disappeared. 

We covered the meeting to hear what was on residents’ minds in the wake of the controversy and how they might want to spend $5 million on improvements at Fort Marcy. We heard plenty about both, but one resident shared an idea so radical, City Different residents might just embrace it. 

An unfortunate series of events between a routine July 1 neighborhood notification meeting and a second on Aug. 21 made for a tense gathering at Fort Marcy Park last week.

Parks and Open Space Division officials couldn’t answer every question but ignored few at a meeting where locals voiced ample concern about missing transparency before considering the future of Fort Marcy. 

Santa Fe politicking was on full display that evening with factions in attendance for a variety of reasons. Some sought votes in the upcoming mayoral election, others wanted to save Fort Marcy from bigger events and a few were simply there because Fort Marcy is their neighborhood park. Out of this kettle of conflicting concerns, one resident planted a seed for tree equity across Santa Fe.

Baron of the Trees

Officials from the division first met with residents at Fort Marcy park on July 1 to discuss how to spend $5 million on improvements appropriated by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham for the park. At that meeting, they set a second meeting for Aug. 21.

In between, the Parks and Open Space Division hosted an annual community input meeting at Fort Marcy. On July 29, about 100 people gathered to discuss, among several topics, security at the 101st Burning of Zozobra. Event chair Ray Sandoval, following up on an email blast he’d sent out earlier that week, told attendees if 12 Siberian elms at Fort Marcy didn’t go down, Zozobra wouldn’t go up on Aug. 29.

His assessment was met with both dissent and support. No plans to remove the trees were announced that night or ever. However, less than a week later workers arrived at Fort Marcy early in the morning to remove the trees. Zozobra’s unnamed insurers were satisfied, but transparency with the public was conspicuously absent. Protestors appeared at the park throughout that day as the unannounced actions commenced.

A pile of woodchips not far from the spot where they once stood and a dozen stumps are all that remains of the 12 trees. Alas, Santa Fe is rife with residents ready to submit the rubble into martyrdom and the meeting on Aug. 21 became the platform.

It's a Shame about Ray

The neighborhood notification meeting was a late afternoon affair, preceded by high winds and heavy rain, However, a little stormy weather couldn’t keep a couple dozen Santa Feans from showing up to Fort Marcy park to pepper Ray Sandoval with questions. One problem: Sandoval wasn’t there.

Nevertheless, Parks and Open Spaces Director Melissa McDonald and Project Manager Scott Overlie did their best to answer questions and explain when they didn’t have answers. They maintained courtesy and cautiously steered the meeting back toward the future of Fort Marcy and how best to replace the 12 trees put to the sword so Zozobra could get insured.

Those who spoke first among the 30-40 in attendance asked questions ultimately for Sandoval. McDonald explained how the Kiwanis Club paid for the felling of the trees with the city’s blessing before trying to redirect the conversation towards replacing them.

This crowd would have none of it—not in the beginning anyway.

Some residents expressed fear that Fort Marcy park was becoming an event venue rather than a neighborhood park, while others suggested the 101st Burning of Zozobra be the last at Fort Marcy. Resident Nicoletta Munroe was quick to suggest the city consider moving the event, which drew applause.

“I just want people to remember that this is a tree meeting, and also it’s a meeting about all of you taking control of your park,” Munroe said. “Right now, we’re bending to one event that happens once a year.”

Sandoval told SFR in a previous interview that he and Zozobra organizers vetted eight potential alternative locations for the Zozobra event but none passed muster.

“This is not about Zozobra activity,” McDonald reminded the crowd. “This is about improving our park.”

After questions about whether Kiwanis held more sway than the general public were met with honest shrugs and assurances that every resident’s voice was equal, ideas for the future of Fort Marcy eventually emerged. 

No Shade, Just Add Shade

McDonald and Overlie never lost their patience, at least outwardly, during the hourlong meeting. McDonald explained a $200,000 replanting project was already part of a $5 million beautification plan funded by money from the 2024 legislature. She said replanting was planned by the division months ago in anticipation of at least some tree removal for the project.

“We have $200,000 we can use to plant 36 trees, but it's not only these trees [that were removed for Zozobra]. It's additional areas where we have removed trees or for those we determine we want to replace,” McDonald explained. “We were looking at the whole park, before the work that was done recently, because we knew that we were getting this money from the state legislature, so we've been thinking ahead about how we need to look at the park.” 

McDonald said the budget includes irrigation systems and maintenance as absorbed costs. She said her background in landscape architecture dictates irrigation systems for any new tree plantings.

The $200,000 for tree and shade replacement is part of a $5 million appropriation for Fort Marcy park that came from the 2024 legislative session, backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The money was awarded to Santa Fe despite not being requested by the City of Santa Fe.

McDonald assured the crowd she would take all their suggestions back to city leaders, encouraging people to share their ideas for how to spend the $200,000 the division has in its budget for tree replanting or other shade alternatives. She said her staff could replace the 12 trees with up to 36 trees, man-made shade structures or a combination of the two. McDonald also described the city’s long-term plans to extend the concrete bridge over the arroyo between the baseball field and Magers field.

Attendees expressed the need for improved trails and eventually pointed out places on the map where shade could be added. 

Among the spirited speakers was Billie Blair. A veteran of media and public affairs, Blair was a little late, but quick to speak up: “Most of you are going to hate me for this suggestion,” she said. “But I think we ought to spend the $200,000 at Swan Park where working families live.”

Blair anticipated ire for suggesting the money for Fort Marcy be spread to other parks, but it met with none—a smattering of applause rose instead. 

McDonald told Blair her idea was not impossible, but since the money came from the legislature any change in use would have to be approved by that body. Blair told McDonald that she would be happy to help lobby the governor, if that was what it would take.

With transparency concerns nowhere near resolved, several members of the public requested information about the city’s plans for the park be made available online. Plans are currently only available through a public records request. McDonald told attendees she would request the project’s contractor, Molzen Corbin and Associates, to create a website for the project.

According to McDonald, Thursday’s meeting was far from the last. 

“We will hold additional public meetings as the project design process hits 30-percent, 60-percent and 90-percent completion,” McDonald told the crowd. “Then the design will go to the city council for final approval.”

The city and Molzen Corbin plan to host another public meeting after the design process is complete in several months, McDonald said. She said the shade replacement project should take about a year, though some trees might not be planted until next fall. The broader renovations include public safety, accessibility, new bathrooms, new concessions and infrastructure improvements like the bridge expansion.

The Parks and Open Space Division will work with the Municipal Tree Board board to determine which trees will be planted, McDonald said. Elms are a contender along with oak, cottonwood and Bloodgood London plane trees.

Tree Equity for Santa Fe?

Once the meeting wound down, SFR caught up with Blair to expound upon her ideas.

“My point is just this: let's stop this spending of $5 million on a park near a neighborhood where a bunch of old people, like me, live. Let's take that funding and use it in central Santa Fe, the southside, where working families live,” she told SFR. “My other point is, take the $200,000 in tree money, which I think we could do, and don’t spend it here [at Fort Marcy] and spend it putting in trees in parks where people will enjoy the shade in their lifetime. We will not.”

Blair said her concern for Fort Marcy has to do with the park’s purpose going forward.

“I walk this park every day. We need to start thinking of this as the people’s park, not an event park. Where I see this going is, this is becoming an event park. And it's not because I'm a neighbor who doesn’t want something in her backyard. Quite frankly, it would be very cool to walk from my house to the park to hear Paul McCartney in concert,” Blair told SFR. “What I'm really thinking about is tree equity. I think it’s inequitable for Marcy to get more trees. Marcy already has pickleball, and I love that. I’m for that. We’ve got the dog runs. So, we’ve already had improvements to this park. So, let’s spend it where working families live.”