Showing up for a meeting, she saved a tree

“I thought, ‘I don’t even know if I even need to show up. Why would they take down a beautiful tree?’ ” she said. “It reminds me of the giving tree. It’s just this giant, beautiful tree,” she said.

But as an adult, she said, she’s able to see it for much more.

“It’s a place of pride, and it’s a place that anchors the neighborhood,” she said.

So as a just-in-case precaution, she attended the meeting. When her eyes scanned over the dozens of architectural renderings, she noticed the tree was missing.

“I thought, ‘Are you kidding? There’s one beautiful tree of consequence, and you’re going to take it down?’ ” Ruggles said. “Do you know how many trees we’d have to plant to make up for the caliber of that tree?”

She said she walked up to the fire chief and the associate architect and said: “Please don’t make me chain myself to this tree.”

Vancouver Fire Chief Joe Molina admits that when he held the meeting a few months ago, the tree was the last thing on his mind.

He was still in the middle of negotiating the purchase of the land from the Vancouver Public Schools, and the tree was in the center of the proposed plot.

“We were so focused on everything else,” Molina said. “Removing a tree was probably going to be an automatic.”

But after hearing Ruggles’ concerns, Molina pressed the architects to find a way to save the tree. They came back to him with a design that shifted a wing of the building to allow the tree to live.

The change, Molina said, ended up making the building look more prominent.

“It makes it more appealing physically from the road, and we were able to keep the tree, so it’s a win-win,” he said.

Molina said he understands and appreciated Ruggles’ passion and is glad she spoke up.

“It would have been a shame if we removed it and didn’t have to,” he said.

Molina, who said he loves trees himself, said he’s experienced having a favorite tree and then noticing one day that it wasn’t there anymore.

“How many times could it have been averted if people were advocating for it ahead of time?” Molina asked. “She came to the meeting with one purpose, that the tree must not be harmed. It’s a great case of a person advocating for something they believe in and moving the government. It can be done.”

After securing the tree’s future, Ruggles stopped by the tree and ended up talking to a man coaching pee wee football at Warrior Field. She told him what almost happened to the tree.

“You could see in his face, he cared about this tree,” she said. “People are proud of this tree. This tree matters.”

With a little bit of intention, investment and some imagination, Ruggles said, community members can make a difference. For Ruggles, it’s making her neighborhood the place she wants it to live.

“You get people to care about a neighborhood by getting them to care about individual elements that make a neighborhood,” she said. “You need to protect its elements like this beautiful tree.”