Posted on: Friday, December 7, 2001

Kane'ohe tree being removed after 50 years

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O‘ahu Writer

The large banyan tree that hangs over Likelike Highway and the walkway near the Anoi Street intersection in Kane'ohe is being removed by Pukiki Landscape and Tree service, despite successful efforts to find money to keep it trimmed. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

KAne'ohe — A last-ditch effort by the Kane'ohe Outdoor Circle to save a banyan tree that has graced Likelike Highway at the corner of Anoi Road for some 50 years has failed.

Landowner John Heidtke gave the contractor the go-ahead even as phone messages promising donations to save the tree were being received at the Outdoor Circle's office, and yesterday, tree trimmers began cutting away at the roadside landmark.

The tree was considered a nuisance by some, dropping branches and leaves and interfering with children using a pedestrian overpass. The tree's roots were destroying neighboring property, and one of the landowners had threatened to sue Heidtke.

Still, the Kane'ohe Outdoor Circle thought it had an agreement with Heidtke to put off his decision to remove the tree, said group spokesman Rom Duran.

"I'm very disappointed; we were duped by the landowner," Duran said, adding that he talked to Heidtke on Wednesday and told him that the problems could be avoided with proper trimming and that the money to do that could be raised in two weeks.

"There was a great positive response from the community, and now to find out they're cutting it down is a big disappointment," Duran said.

Heidtke, who rents out the property, couldn't be reached for comment yesterday, but on Wednesday he said the pressure from the neighbors was great.

"It's a very bad situation," he said. "It's really causing a lot of hardship and damage to two of my neighbors."

The spreading banyan straddled the state's right of way on Likelike and the property owned by Heidtke, a Kane'ohe resident for 40 years. The tree's roots had taken hold of a lava rock wall, and its 80- to 100-foot-high canopy towered over the pedestrian overpass and much of the highway. Roots and branches from the tree also had encroached onto neighbors' property, undermining the concrete slab of two homes.

Heidtke said trimming the tree would have cost $4,000 and the process would have to be repeated in a few years. Removal, on the other hand, costs $7,500, he said.

The Department of Transportation had given Heidtke a deadline to trim the tree after receiving a complaint from a neighboring resident, who thought the tree belonged to the state, said Martin Okabe, O'ahu district engineer for the Highways Division.

"We supported his neighbor's claim," Okabe said. "We felt it was becoming a nuisance and she wanted it cut down. But we're in no position to tell him to cut it down."

The tree could have been spared and the problems resolved with proper pruning of the tree's branches and roots, said Mary Steiner, chief executive officer of The Outdoor Circle.

Steiner said she thought the Outdoor Circle had more time to raise money to trim the tree and in fact had received a call yesterday from a person who was willing to pay the full cost of the pruning.

"There were a ton of phone messages from people offering to give money, and one of them said they would take care of the tree forever," Steiner said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.