By Gale Fiege, Herald Writer
LAKE GOODWIN -- Goldie Brose wants a say in what happens to Lakewood Road, and she wants to save her trees.
In the 1930s her late husband, Ivan, used a plow and a team of horses to help build the first road at Lake Goodwin. Later, encouraged by Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson, Ivan Brose planted a line of about 30 native evergreens along their property in an effort to make the road out to Warm Beach even more scenic.
Now it's possible that the trees won't survive a county road improvement project.
Snohomish County public works officials initially planned to cut down the small grove of 40-year-old cedars, firs and hemlocks to make room for a walkway on the shoulder of Lakewood Road.
"I am trying to hold on to the trees for the community," Goldie Brose said. "I've lived here since I was 5 years old. I care about this place."
Brose, 91, has always been community minded.
She and her husband were 4-H, Camp Fire and Boy Scout leaders. They ran an emergency foster home in the 1970s.
"My husband and I did so many things for the community, and now this is our answer? We don't deserve this," she said.
Brose's children are concerned about their mother's health and quality of life should the trees be cut down and their roots pulled out.
The tree buffer offers their mother privacy, safety and shelter from increasing traffic noise, air pollution, winter winds and hot summer sun.
"Her health is fragile," said daughter Joyce Wold of Arlington. "Her world is the window seat in her kitchen. To take away her landscape would be devastating."
The county's Lakewood Road project is set to add pedestrian walkways on the shoulders of both sides of the road between Frank Waters Road and E. Lake Goodwin Road. It also provides for two 11-foot traffic lanes and improved intersections at E. and W. Lake Goodwin roads.
Because the ditch in front of Brose's trees offers riparian habitat that feeds into Lake Goodwin, the project plan called for taking out the trees in order to move the ditch over so the walkway could be built on the road's shoulder.
When county public works officials approached Brose recently with an offer of about $2,500 for 1,730 feet of her property for an enlarged public right of way, Brose got busy.
She wrote a letter of protest to County Executive Aaron Reardon.
When Reardon got the letter, he asked public works officials if there could be an alternate solution to the proposed removal of the trees, county spokesman Christopher Schwarzen said.
It might be possible to save Brose's trees, county engineering services director Art Louie said.
"We are looking seriously into the alternative of leaving the trees and working with (state) Fish and Wildlife staff to put the ditch into a stream pipe, and the walkway on top of that," Louie said. "We're still working on a solution, but there is hope for Mrs. Brose's trees."
Brose said she isn't ready to have hope, but she is praying that the county won't cut down her trees.
"Trees prevent runoff that causes flooding," Brose said. "Besides, Sen. Jackson wanted this to be a scenic route. It won't be without trees."
Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.
