Seattle Woman's Trees 'Poisoned for a View'

Jan. 3, 2011 — -- Trees in a hillside neighborhood in West Seattle, Wash., have apparently been poisoned to death, putting the neighborhood at risk for mudslides.

"I'm afraid we're not going to have a house to live in," Kaly Cook said. "That's my fear."

Cook has lived in her hillside home along Harbor Avenue since the 1960s. The neighborhood features multimillion-dollar homes with astonishing views of Seattle.

For 50 years, Cook's view included 17 alder trees. Now they're dying and Cook believes that someone in the neighborhood is killing the trees so he or she can get a better view from the window.

Cook said she hired arborists in the summer who told her someone sawed the bottom of the trees and poured poison in them. The arborists said that there is nothing that can be done to save the trees, Cook said. Two of the trees fell down two weeks ago.

"They are literally the only trees at the top of the hill and so they are utterly critical because their structure is really holding a lot," Cook said. "People need to understand the consequences of their actions are more important than getting a view."

The area is already unstable. Christy Watson, whose office is in the neighborhood, said a small landslide happened in the past two weeks, moving one house closer to the edge of a cliff.

Tim Griffith, an arborist for the city, said Seattle has suffered from several landslides in the past month and trees being removed from a hillside heighten the risk of slides.

"Roots hold soil," Griffith said. "So if you kill trees, you lose basically that sponge."

A neighbor first discovered the poisoned trees and alerted Cook and her husband.

"They just looked like they were dormant," Cook said. "I couldn't believe it."

John Hendrickson, a neighbor, has three pygmy goats living in the hillside. He told ABC affiliate KOMO that one of the dying trees fell within six inches of the small barn that houses his goats.

"If they eat the poison, they'll die. Second, the trees are all dying and falling over and it's going to cause the hillside to slide, already a slide-prone area," Hendrickson told KOMO.

The neighborhood was evacuated after a bad mudslide in 1986, Cook said.

"There was a lot of damage. We had to move out of the house for six months," she said.

The mudslide prompted Cook to consult with an arborist about how to stabilize the sensitive slope. She began having trees and other shrubs planted to help add stability. Now, all that work may be in vain.