Two teenagers, aided by an arborist, climbed a 100-foot pine tree outside a Pasadena high school Saturday to dramatize a campaign to stop a soil remediation project calling for the removal of nearly 200 trees at several school campuses.
Friends of PUSD Trees, a group formed to oppose the tree removal, held a low-key protest in front of Muir High School, holding up signs that drew honks from passing motorists and chanting to the beat of two drums. But the central action was a quiet, largely out-of-view demonstration of positive human interaction with trees.
Several members equipped with climbing harnesses clambered up a small tree on the school’s front lawn and dangled from its limbs on climbing ropes.
“It really gives you a sense of being one with nature even though Lincoln Avenue is right there,” said Friends co-founder Jessica Richards, interviewed by phone as she sat 25 feet above ground in the carob tree. “You feel like you’re far away from the urban environment when you’re up in a tree. It’s really special.”
The relaxed mood of Saturday’s event provided an upbeat counterpoint to a community uprising that has included the classic tactic of an activist chaining herself to a tree to prevent its felling and has now drawn the city of Pasadena and the Pasadena Unified School District into a legal dispute.
The battle harks back to the January 2025 Eaton fire which spread toxic ash over swaths of Altadena and Pasadena. According to a timetable posted on the district’s website, following the recommendation of the city’s Public Health Department, the district conducted soil testing at its 34 campuses and restricted access to areas at several where excessive levels of contamination, principally lead, were detected. The district entered into a voluntary cleanup agreement with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Prior to the 2025-2026 school year, it cleaned eight campuses, leaving 11 more, including Muir and Blair high schools, to be cleaned.
In February, the district notified the DTSC of its plan to remediate contaminated soil, during which its contractor would cut down 193 trees, among them some that fall under the city’s tree protection ordinance. The district said it provided the city with plans and received an assurance that the project would not require permits to remove protected trees.
That collegial posture changed when residents noticed trees coming down.
Nina Raj, one of the founding members of Friends of PUSD Trees, said she saw three coast live oaks and a sweetgum tree felled on the Muir campus and brought the work to a halt by chaining herself to the next in a row of four sweetgums slated for removal. That tree still stands with its major branches and half its trunk lopped off.
The Friends group analyzed the district’s plan and found it specious.
“It’s appropriate if you want to clean fast and you don’t care about the trees,” said arborist Nick Araya. “Right from the get-go, they should have said these trees are worth having around, and we should get a workaround.”
Critics point to a quilt-like pattern of toxins, rather than widespread contamination, as evidence that the lead was likely present before the Eaton fires and could be treated with less urgency.
The Friends group prepared its own counterproposal. It would involve continued isolation of contaminated areas to prevent student contact and the removal of toxins through phytoremediation, an emerging technology that uses plants known to absorb toxins from the soil.
Under pressure from the community, the city reversed course, notifying the district on June 25 that the project would be subject to the tree protection ordinance and permits would be required.
City inspectors posted stop-work orders at several campuses. According to members of the Friends group, district officials took down the notices and then blocked inspectors from school property. On July 10, the city obtained a warrant in Los Angeles Superior Court to inspect district property.
Six days later, the school board voted unanimously in closed session to initiate litigation to protect against “interference” on school property and, in open session, voted 5-2 to adopt a resolution “rendering Zoning Ordinances of the City of Pasadena Inapplicable to School Sites.”
Meanwhile, the district produced a modified plan that would spare some — either 57 or 47 — of the 84 remaining uncut trees, Friends member Jennifer LaPlante said.
The Friends are not mollified.
“Fortunately, what remains are more of the large, more mature trees,” Richards said. “The ones left are worth fighting for.”
Rather than fuel the animosity, the Friends made Saturday more of an awakening than a protest.
“It’s an opportunity to come together for a celebration of trees and engage the community in experiencing trees in new ways,” Richards said.
The ascent of a towering Aleppo pine — not one of the trees slated for removal — was a quiet and slowly paced piece de la resistance.
Araya, the arborist, outfitted Paloma Muñiz-Ochoa, 17, and Maia Atkinson, 17, then, one by one, taught them the leg technique to ascend prepositioned ropes to a branch 50 feet above ground. From there, the three continued, one branch at a time, to a vantage point within feet of the crown.
Having achieved their goal, Muñiz-Ochoa, Atkinson and two other climbers who followed them slid down the ropes to solid ground. But they were prepared to stay overnight, or whatever it would take, to stop the removal of any more trees, Muñiz-Ochoa said.
She had already spent eight hours atop an oak tree in the district headquarters parking lot on the day she thought it might be cut and came down only when she was assured the contractors would not return.
“It took a lot of convincing to get me down, “ she said. “I’m willing to stay as long as it takes. I’m willing to keep fighting as long as it takes to ensure the safety of the trees.”
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