Local resident works with a formidable community to save a 100-year-old Eucalyptus
By Dave Schwab|SDUN Reporter
They’re calling it “Filbert’s tree” because Filbert Vigil is the one who led the fight to save the stately, 100-plus-year-old Hillcrest Eucalyptus tree that’s graced the corner of Richmond Street and Pennsylvania Avenue long before there were houses, sidewalks or even a neighborhood.
Vigil lives across the street from “his” tree, on the property his family’s owned since 1965. One evening about three months ago he was sitting on his balcony and noticed a big white X on the side of the beloved community landmark.
“I just assumed they were going to take the tree down,” he said. So he called the Sierra Club and told them about the condemned tree and was told, “Once they’ve been marked—there’s nothing you can do.”
Undaunted, Vigil contacted HillQuest, a 9-year-old community news website billing itself as the “urban guide to 92103,” and asked them for help.
HillQuest founders Ann Garwood and Nancy Moors took up his cause.
Pinch-hitting for Vigil, who cares for an elderly mother, Garwood read a letter from him to the Hillcrest Town Council, imploring the advisory group to support saving the tree, a decision the council unanimously endorsed.
“Everybody kind of jumped into action, got on board, saw there was really the need to come to the aid of a neighbor: It was great,” Moors said. “I think that’s why it was saved. If people had not mobilized … it would have come down fairly quickly.”
Vigil credits the individual he turned to next: KUSI television investigative reporter and consumer
watchdog Michael Turko, for really turning the situation around.
Turko did a TV spot profiling Filbert’s tree, which, it turns out, had been slated for removal due to a federally mandated wheelchair ramp replacement program requiring the city of San Diego to tear down and replace existing ramps. In turn, this construction would have forced the city to remove the tree too.
“I told him (Turko) putting the ramps in was fine—but not at the expense of a 100-year-old tree,” Vigil said.
Between Turko’s TV spot and involvement by the office of Third District Councilmember Todd Gloria and Luke Terpstra, Hillcrest Town councilmember, things began to move in a positive direction for Filbert’s tree.
“We contacted the Community Forestry Advisory Board and they started looking into having the tree designated as a ‘heritage’ tree (to protect it) and requested a meeting with the city’s street division,” Terpstra said. “That’s when the street division started backing down and saying ‘there are things we can do around this tree other than taking it down.’ ”
“That tree is staying,” confirmed Hasan Yousef, deputy director of the city’s street division. “The tree will not be harmed.”
Analysis and testing proved the tree is stable, said Yousef, who admitted public sentiment for saving it unquestionably weighed against its removal. “We always listen to what the people say and we work with the community,” he said. “We know the significance of this tree.”
Vigil’s vigilance in helping to save a community landmark has earned him communitywide recognition,
Terpstra said.
“We’re going to give him one of our L.I.O.N. (Let’s Improve Our Neighborhood) Awards,” he said. “Generally, we give these out to someone who has done something to improve their property, make a corner look better, keep their storefronts clean, etc. We said this is perfect for Filbert.”
Vigil said saving the tree is preserving history.
“It’s just outlasted everything around,” Vigil said. “It’s one of the original things of Hillcrest.”
Now the tree can continue as a community symbol and landmark, a truly “natural” resource, said Terpstra.
“It is one beautiful tree,” he said. “It blooms every year with its red flowers.”
Talking about what saving “Filbert’s tree” has meant to the community, Vigil concluded, “We just proved we’re a force to be reckoned with in Hillcrest. …That’s the best part.”
