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November 07, 2005
Writer puts his body on the line at base of Telegraph Hill trees
The wild parrots of San Francisco's Telegraph Hill, those colorful birds made famous by a book and movie, may be evicted from towering trees where they like to spend their days, proving that in the cutthroat Bay Area real estate market, even feathered celebrities have it tough.
A property owner whose land includes three Monterey cypresses where the parrots perch, watch for preying hawks and stash their offspring while they hunt for food wants to give the aging trees the ax because he considers them a liability that could topple onto surrounding homes, neighbors say.
The buzz of chainsaws attempting to cut down the trees on Monday morning drowned out the loud squawking of the parrots that typically floods over Telegraph Hill -- that is, until Mark Bittner, who lives next door and who wrote the book about the birds and starred in a documentary with them, ran out of his cottage, stood at the base of the trees in protest and persuaded workers to turn off their saws.
Two of the three trees were spared, and now those people closest to the parrots are waging a high-stakes campaign to save the remaining two cypresses and thereby ensure that their famous feathered companions stay on the hill.
"If these trees are cut down," Bittner said from his rustic cottage, "the birds will all move on. There's no need for it. Why put them through that?"
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Posted by sue at November 7, 2005 10:20 AM
Comments
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Posted by: Andrew Smith at February 18, 2006 12:27 PM