Healdsburg students replace trees that could be felled

<p>At the northern edge of Healdsburg, as many as 1,500 oak trees could one day be toppled to make way for the Saggio Hills resort hotel and residences.</p><p>While the controversial project remains mired in a lawsuit, developers this week launched a replanting effort to replace the oaks they plan to eventually cut down.</p><p>With the help of about 80 Healdsburg High School students, the developers on Thursday began planting the first of about 4,000 oak seedlings they expect to bring in over the next several years.</p><p>“They’re gonna grow huge,” said Taylor Teuschler, an 11th grader in the earth sciences class, referring to the oak seedlings she helped plant, now only a few inches tall.</p><p>“It has a little blanket on it,” she said of the small tarp around the tubes designed to protect the baby oaks from hungry deer and encroaching weeds.</p><p>The students were expected to plant as many as 1,000 of the seedlings on Thursday, and about half that number today, mostly along a seasonal creek on the 258-acre Saggio Hills property, north of the Parkland Farms subdivision.</p><p>“You’re keeping the land in its natural way, so animals can live and we can live with animals,” said Jake Alger, a sophomore in an agricultural biology class taking part in the replanting.</p><p>Young people sowing oak trees for a controversial development proposal might be viewed as a smooth public relations maneuver on the part of the developers.</p><p>But Tony Korman, a partner in the Saggio Hills project, said that was “not the intent” when he approached school officials about the oak tree planting.</p><p>“This has not been an effort to promote this project at all. It’s an effort to get some experience (for the students),” he said Thursday, as he supervised the youngsters putting in the trees.</p><p>In more than two-dozen Planning Commission and City Council hearings that took place over about a year, Healdsburg residents voiced divided opinions on Saggio Hills and its 130-room resort hotel, 70 high-end homes and up to 150 affordable dwellings. Also included are a large public park, open space and hiking trails.</p><p>The project was approved by the City Council in October 2008, only to be immediately hit with a lawsuit filed by opponents challenging the environmental studies.</p><p>A judge is expected to rule on the case by Dec. 3, but even if it goes in favor of the developers, opponents have indicated they would appeal, raising the spectre of more delay in breaking ground on the resort.</p><p>Korman said Thursday that the oak seedlings were germinated from acorns gathered on the property and needed to be planted now, prior to the rainy season.</p><p>They consist of three species — coastal live oak, blue, and black oaks.</p><p>“We had grown the trees last year. They needed to get in the ground or die. We wanted to get a head start on this,” Korman said.</p><p>The idea is for the oaks to help stabilize the creek, prevent further erosion and create a habitat where native willows, poplars and madrones will grow.</p><p>On Thursday, none of the students expressed concern about being seen as pawns in a larger political battle over the development.</p><p>“We’re not for or against it. We’re just redoing the habitat,” said sophomore J.D. Ferrero.</p><p>“We’re not out here supporting Saggio Hills and development. We’re out here for the habitat,” said Becky Deniz, his high school agriculture teacher. “We have no spin on it one way or another.”</p><p>Last week in the classroom, students did get a chance to talk about Saggio Hills, and some questioned why Healdsburg needs another hotel, or to build more houses.</p><p>“They’re probably as divided as others in the community,” Deniz said. “But all are in favor for doing something for the habitat, animals and the wildlife side of it.”</p><p>“The planting was going to happen whether the kids were involved or not,” she said. “This is an opportunity for the kids to get out of the classroom into the fields and participate in hands-on instruction.”</p>