Before/After: Navajo Wash Tree Massacre

NOTE: 2 of the people responsible for the destruction of trees in Navajo Wash sued the City of Tucson for neglecting the area and not dealing with homeless people camping in the Wash. On May 9, 2024 they lost. Sadly, that does not bring back the trees they destroyed, but Councilman Dahl states that the trees will be replaced later this year.

The photo at the top of this post was taken on October 8, 2022 at the Navajo Wash Park. It is the Before photo. The After image is below.

In 2022 the Trashy Divas, a member group of Tucson Clean and Beautiful, volunteered to help the Hedrick Acres Neighborhood Association (HANA) during their monthly clean-up of the park. The woman in the photo is a Diva; the man is/was part of the neighborhood association.

I am one of the Trashy Divas who helped back in October, 2022 and I can tell you we know the routine; we’ve been picking up debris in Tucson city parks and with Neighborhood Associations for years. A dozen or so of us put on our protective gloves, opened big plastic garbage bags, and spread out through the Navajo Wash Park with its green trees, thorny shrubs, and tallish grasses. Using our long-handled pickers we snatched up food wrappers, empty soda pop cans, cigarette butts, and the ubiquitous plastic bags.

A surprise by the Neighborhood Association

Several of us were surprised when a man and woman, left, from HANA took out saws and loppers and began trimming the lower branches of trees. Their seeming rationale: that it made it easier to reach the trash under the trees. Although none of us were having difficulty picking up litter.

The head of the Divas, as surprised as the rest of us, said to everyone that Divas clean up places, we don’t prune trees. And, because it didn’t take long to pick up the litter in Navajo Wash, we spread out onto nearby streets to pick up more stuff. A couple of Divas helped carry the pruned branches to the parking area for the city to haul away. If I remember correctly, we were offered donuts when we finished. A nice gesture.

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Fast Forward to the tree massacre one year later

This photo was taken on October 4, 2023, in almost the same location as the image at the top of this post. Last week, according to news reports, the Hedrick Acres Neighborhood Association, in conjunction with a local resident, paid someone with a chain saw to cut down 74 trees in Navajo Wash during their monthly “clean-up”. They did not inform the city or get permits–even though they were destroying city property. They did not inform residents of the Hedrick Acres Neighborhood of their intentions–although a woman on the Board claims they sent out their usual monthly notice about a clean-up. She seemed to think that was enough notification for this tree massacre.

It is not entirely clear, but apparently their thinking was that by destroying the trees they would drive homeless people out of the Wash. They deny this. And it didn’t work. When I was there on October 4, 2023 there were two homeless campsites with occupants, and another that appears to have been recently vacated.

But not all is totally grim. Looking southward from where I stood to take the tree stump photo, there are still some trees remaining at the southern edge of Navajo Wash Park.

And the police are investigating. I hope that the powers-that-be do not try to let this drift out of the public’s eye. Someone should be held accountable for this destruction and someone should have to restore the park. I will be tracking this story and let all of you know what happens.