Tree carvings debuted for Brewster council members

BREWSTER – City Council members got their first look at photos of the two new tree carvings in Columbia Cove Park during their regular meeting last Wednesday, Jan. 10.
Master tree carver Jacob Lucas from Bonney Lake, Wash, whose chainsaw handiwork can be seen most prominently along Foster creek Avenue leading into downtown Bridgeport and to a lesser degree around Chelan, completed the project just days prior to the council’s first meeting of 2018.
City clerk Misty Ruiz directed everyone’s attention to the clever use of a a large fork where a limb once grew from the pruned trunk.
“He looked at that limb and said: ‘What am I going to do with that great big limb?’” said Ruiz of Lucas’s design-on-the-fly method. “He said: ‘I’m going to put a bear sleeping there,’” Ruiz said.
“Totally freehand, amazing to watch,” said Public Works Director Lee Webster.
Lucas began working on the two pruned London Plane trees, sycamore hybrids, just after the Christmas holidays and finished up during the first week of the new year.
The diseased trees were pruned by an arborist last fall in preparation for their final transformation. The $10,000-plus bill for the project was paid for in part through donations from the Brewster school ($2,700), Brewster Chamber of Commerce ($2,000), Brewster Salmon Derby ($2,000), and Douglas Okanogan County Fire District Volunteer Ambulance Association ($500).
Webster said a plaque will be installed later in recognition of the carver, donor and volunteers. No additional carvings are planned at this time.