We need your help after the City of Santa Rosa granted a permit to cut down a beautiful, 70-foot Redwood Tree known by neighbors as Rosie the Redwood.

10/18/2026 Update: On Oct. 8, the Santa Rosa Planning Commission voted to rescind the permit to cut down Rosie the Redwood on a 3-2 vote. The Commission heard from leaders of Friends of Rosie and 27 other supporters who opposed the destruction of this beautiful, healthy tree that is truly a friend to our community.

We are currently awaiting word from the owners on whether they will agree to build a pathway around the tree or if they will file an appeal with the City Council to override the Planning Commission. Friends of Rosie also offered to help the owners with our research and possible financial support if they agree to work cooperatively with us on designing a proper walkway. We got no response as of 10/18.

Please stay tuned, We are consulting attorneys to establish our rights and options going forward and will continue our fight to Save Rosie to the very end. Hopefully, the owners will agree to join our efforts and will be welcomed into our community as caring property owners who understand what this tree means to our neighborhood.

Your continued support is welcome as we anticipate attorney fees, filing fees, and other expenses. THANK YOU! Especially to the 60 people who donated to our cause, the 140 people who wrote to the city, the 400 who've signed our petition, and the 27 subject matter experts who SHOWED UP to give testimony to the Planning Commission. We would not have gotten this far without ALL of You!

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9/15/26 Update: We're wondering why NEITHER of the City Council Candidates for District 4 in Santa Rosa (where Rosie lives) have taken a position on the city's abysmal decision to issue a permit to cut down this vital Heritage Tree in violation of the city's Tree Ordinance. Come on, folks, what are you waiting for? 325 voters in that district have signed a petition to save the tree -- and you're silent?

TERRY SANDERS, who sits on the Planning Commission, says he'll recuse himself from the Appeal Hearing before the Commission on Oct. 8 because he lives close to the tree. But that doesn't explain why he hasn't spoken out as a non-conflicted private citizen. Terry, did you know Rosie holds up to 5,000 gallons of water and could help slow a fast-moving wildfire?

MELANIE JONES-CARTER, who chairs the Historic Preservation Committee, hasn't spoken up either. It's not before her committee so she could weigh in there, or she could simply speak up as a citizen running for the council. Melanie, if you call yourself an environmentalist who cares about our heritage, that starts with protecting Rosie.

Ballots go out soon, so if you see Terry or Melanie, or if they ask for your vote or money, please be sure to press them on whethry they support our efforts to save this healthy, beautiful, living monument to our City's Heritage. Time's running out and all we here are the crickets in Rosie's branches.

UPDATE 7-22-26: PG&E says it will ask its engineering team to see if they can re-route wires around Rosie. This is a great relief. The company marked Rosie with an X for removal last week, but now says it will hold off a final decision until after the city appeal process is completed. In any case, they say it would be many, many months before any action is take against here. We need to monitor this carefully while working with PG&E, but for now, this is very good news!

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PLEASE CONTINUE TO HELP BY SENDING YOUR EMAIL COMMENTS to local officials who can still affect this. We will be appealing to the Planning Commission this week, and we want to ensure City Councilwoman Victoria Fleming knows how upset people are by this. GoFundMe won't let us post their addresses, but you can figure it out:

Planning Commission at SRCity (dot) org

VFleming at SRCity (dot) org

cc: Rosie (at) RedwoodAge (dot) com

By sending your email to us, we will add you to our email list to keep you in touch through periodic updates.

Keep those comments coming!!

--Rosie's story continues below--

Rosie is healthy and stable. She's popular with neighbors -- from kids to seniors, who've watcher her grow for decades. They visit Rosie while walking through the McDonald Historic District of Santa Rosa, Calif.

Rosie lives on 13th St. (between McDonald and Spring). She cracked through the sidewalk that someone (foolishly) built over her roots long ago. Now, new landlords from out of town want to cut Rosie down rather than build a sidewalk around her. The City has granted them a permit, and we want to appeal. But it's costly do appeal.

Everyone agrees the sidewalk needs to be repaired, but we're asking that the new walkway go around the tree. There is plenty of room for this. The city often extends the curb out into the street to protect redwoods and other purposes. And the city's own tree ordinance says the city should protect trees like Rosie when possible.

The Press-Democrat ran a story about this: https://tinyurl.com/RosiePD

And KRON-TV has also done a story: https://tinyurl.com/RosieKRON

We've gathered 109 signatures from neighbors. Of the people we contacted, 95 percent say they want to save this beautiful tree. Dozens of other residents have written directly to the city, asking to save the tree.

An appeal to the Planning Commission costs about $850. An appeal to the City Council would cost another $850. And we'd like to have a study by an independent arborist to evaluate the tree. We're trying to raise $3,000. (Any extra funds will be donated to the city's parks.)

Please donate what you can to help us reach our goal of $3,000.

Our ability to save Rosie the Redwood depends on it.