Old friend may cease to be; girl wants to save this tree

Or, in this case, for one mesquite tree, which has stood on the southeast corner of the Sam Hughes Elementary School campus for about 20 years.

Like the other eight trees that line the eastern perimeter of the school, this one grew straight for the first two feet of its life, but then it meandered horizontally for a while and then angled back up.

It's crinkling the fence. It lost a branch.

But from a kids' perspective, it's a trusty friend that makes a perfect bench.

It's great for clambering around and under.

And it has a natural knothole that seems to be an irresistible draw as a mixing bowl or a hiding place.

Even though facilities workers have braced the tree to help support its weight, Principal Roseanne DeCesari said the mesquite may have to come down for safety reasons. There's no immediate plan to cut it down, but it's under consideration, she said.

Rylie has no special love for the other trees. It's this one that she sits on while waiting for her ride after school. And it's this one that provides a fun play space for her friends. When she heard about it, she said she remembers thinking, "They can't do that! It's a good tree and it makes a comfortable seat."

So when she told her grandfather, John O'Dowd, a local attorney and president of the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association, about the tree's possible fate, the two worked up a petition. Rylie gathered more than 50 signatures.

One of those belongs to Jim Tallmadge, whose career spanned 35 years at the school and who remembers one of his classes planting the tree.

"Given my personality, it's only apropos that it should grow like that, so different than all the rest and a little goofy," he said. "It's part of the history of the school. And I just thought it was pretty cool that somebody would take the time to go ahead and do something like that to try to save it."

Principal DeCesari said the students won't come back from break to find the tree gone.

And she thought the petition drive was a "wonderful exercise to show kids that they can be heard."

If the tree has to come down ultimately, she said that will be a good learning experience, too, because it could be a project, allowing students to research different trees and think of ways to raise funds for a new one.

Fourth-grader Rylie won't like that outcome, but she said the petition, at a minimum, "was fun being able to know you're helping something."

"We should learn to stand up for our rights," she said.

And, on occasion, the rights of leafy things.