After reading The Beachcomber (“Pharmacy removes tree, driveway in attempt to make pocket park safer”), I just can’t remain silent over the pharmacy’s decision to remove the eucalyptus and its rationale for creating a “new park.” I have run a landscape design firm for 40 years. I came to Vashon in 1993. I was delighted to see several exceptional trees preserved on Vashon — such as the eucalyptus, the redwood at Treasure Island, the monkey puzzle at Bank Road and S.W. 100th and the stately black walnuts at Cemetery Road.

Planted in 1984 by Peter Ray, the eucalyptus survived and flourished. I was disappointed over its removal because there is little support for the plant kingdom in our world. There is a general lack of understanding and compassion for trees and their unique form of life. There couldn’t have been a finer fit for a tree to represent the essence of the drugstore. For thousands of years, leaves and oil from the eucalyptus have been used to treat allergies, bronchitis, burns, colds, diabetes, gout, herpes, insect bites, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and sore throats. This particular tree was very much alive, regardless of the opinion of one arborist. If security were the main concern, the tree could have been carefully pruned to form the focal point of the “new park.”

Now, as for the “new park,” it won’t be a park at all, but rather a parking strip. A park implies a place where humans, animals and plants can have a harmonious experience together. There will be none of that. There will be no place to sit. I often sat on the railroad ties, looking up into the eucalyptus. There was a wonderful fragrance noticeable on warm, sunny days.

Of course life will go on. Vashon will be less weird. There will be a new parking strip, but there will never ever be another eucalyptus. I suppose the vagrants will now cross over into Thriftway’s parking lot to sit on the one and only bench there.

— Terry Welch