900-year-old Pierce County tree may be cut down for new semi-truck parking lot
Becca Most
Sun, February 8, 2026 at 1:30 PM UTC
4 min read
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The city of Lakewood is considering approving permits that would allow a landowner to cut down an oak tree that is at least 900 years old to make way for a semi-truck parking lot.
Birds could be heard chirping in the tree’s enormous branches on Wednesday afternoon when The News Tribune visited the site in the industrial Woodbrook neighborhood.
The 3.8-acre vacant lot was riddled with stumps. Some time between 2023 and 2024 the property owner razed 70 trees at 7319 146th St. SW without authorization, public records show. The city of Lakewood fined the owner $1,130,724 for the “malicious cutting,” but that fine was reduced to $346,920, according to a letter dated Jan. 5.
According to a Jan. 16 city memo, the Emerson Lake Business Park has proposed extending a truck-and-trailer parking lot in association with an existing lot in the Industrial Business Park. Applicant Jason Hubbell and landowner Jane Yin, as well as representatives with Emerson Lake Business Park, did not respond to The News Tribune’s requests for comment. Tax records indicate the property has an assessed value of $1.6 million as of 2025.
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City communications manager Kelie Kahler said the original $1,130,724 fine was based on a preliminary estimate of presumed impacts at a time when the city did not have access to the property for full verification. Kahler said a request for information has been issued to the applicant, seeking updates to a tree survey to determine how many trees were removed, how large they were and the corresponding mitigation fee as required under the municipal code.
The Emerson Lake Business Park is trying to get a tree-removal permit retroactively that addresses cutting down those 70 trees without authorization, Kahler said. Three other permits to develop the parcel are under review, including a conditional-use permit, which will be decided by the hearing examiner, Kahler said. The public hearing has not been scheduled as of Feb. 6, she said.
Lakewood resident Christina Manetti, the founder of the Garry Oak Coalition nonprofit, said the 900-year-old tree is the largest she has seen in Lakewood. It has a 60-inch diameter, according to a 2025 environmental assessment for Emerson Lake Business Park completed by Soundview Consultants LLC. That means the tree began growing before Genghis Khan was born, before the Gothic cathedrals were built, before the Italian Renaissance, Manetti said. It could be older than 900 years.
The environmental assessment of the trees and wetland indicated the large Oregon white oak (or Garry Oak) has a “full and healthy” canopy “with little to no defects” and some invasive ivy. The canopy measured 5,012 square feet. As previously reported by The News Tribune, Garry oaks have protected status locally and statewide.
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Under the city of Lakewood’s municipal code, developers must submit tree-retention plans, landscape plans and irrigation plans to the city before any building or land-use permit is approved.
Manetti is not a scientist but a concerned citizen who monitors development proposals in the city and has a passion for conservation.
“This [tree] is super old. And to even consider cutting it down is just really shocking,” Manetti said. “It’s next to the wetlands, which are also protected … It’s important for water infiltration. It’s important for carbon sequestering, cleaning the water that we drink.”
She gestured to the large Amazon warehouse next door, with a massive parking lot.
“Especially with these things that they’re building around here, all these impervious surfaces that they’re adding and all the runoff,” Manetti said. “It’s terrible to take away the trees that are helping us mitigate the damage that these kinds of things are causing.”
Nine residents, including Manetti, testified in favor of saving the tree and wetlands at the Feb. 2 Lakewood City Council meeting. Some reminded the council that in 2022 the city made the Garry Oak the official tree of Lakewood. The city has a goal to achieve 40% tree canopy cover city-wide by 2050.