Good job trying to protect the trees, and one hopes a compromise can be reached, but public safety has to take a priority.
Tree savers out on a limb
Deadline nears for compromise over clear zone at Rancho Murieta Airport
By Ed Fletcher - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Don't call him Terry "Butterfly" Schutten, but Sacramento County's top bureaucrat is leading the fight to protect 177 trees on county land next to Rancho Murieta Airport.
The trees -- including a 200-year-old heritage oak -- stand in the way of the privately owned airstrip allowing pilots to land at night.
The airport successfully got a court order demanding the trees to be cut to comply with federal, state and local safety rules.
"We are not against trees," said Art Negrette, an attorney representing the airport. "We want our night permit back; we want a safe airport."
The small single-runway airport is just west of the gated Rancho Murieta community, 25 miles east of Sacramento along Highway 16.
A line of trees -- oak, cottonwood, black walnut and a few non-native varieties -- lies between the runway and the Cosumnes River, about 200 feet south of the landing strip.
Between 1990 and 2002, the airport operated under a variance that allowed night landings despite the trees.
The county's fight to save the trees began before Julia Butterfly Hill drew attention by spending more than two years living in a Humboldt County redwood tree to protect it from loggers.
But the county's 20-year battle appears to be coming to an end after a July appellate court decision.
