The decades-old tree inspired neighbors
in West Somerville to organize as Joe Benoit, who owns the property the
tree was on, maintained it had to come down over safety concerns.

On
Nov. 12 when a crew from Cambridge Landscaping Company came to the
corner of Thorndike and Howard streets to cut the tree down, neighbors
quickly surrounded it and, after a four-hour standoff, successfully
refused to allow it to come down.

In the weeks after,
neighbors tried a variety of plans to save the tree: they sang to it
with a high school choir; offered to help pay for its upkeep; they even
went to court to get a last minute restraining order.

"You leave
us no choice. We are prepared to take direct legal and civic action
Friday morning to prevent the tree from coming down," wrote neighbor
Greg Nadeau in an email to Benoit Thursday night.

But after
the last minute legal maneuver failed, neighbors watched the tree come
down Friday morning. A work crew, guarded by three officers and a
cruiser with flashing lights felled the old weeping Willow, estimated
to be between 40 and 100 years old.