FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Ann Arbor, August 3, 2026.

THE CITY IS DIGGING UNDER THE ARBOR IT IS NAMED FOR

In 1824 John Allen and Elisha Rumsey bought 640 acres here and named the settlement for their wives, both named Ann, and for the stands of bur oak growing on the land. Arbor is an old word for a bower of trees.

Six to eight of those oaks still stand at the Nixon and Argonne entrance to Northbury Condominiums. They were seeded around 1708, were sixty-eight years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed, and were about a hundred and sixteen when the founders named a town after trees like them.

As of last night an open excavation sits within feet of the trunk of one of them, city street tree inventory tag 2688, inside the root zone that feeds it. Photographs attached. The work is part of the city's Nixon Corridor Improvement Project.

The project promised these trees in writing, twice. Its own published comment sheet answers the Argonne Drive comment "Save the mature trees" with "Narrow median and restricted left turns allow trees on east side to be saved." The city's February 3 letter to residents said no trees were planned for removal on the east side of Nixon from Argonne to Dhu Varren. City code Chapter 40 forbids injuring a right-of-way tree without written authorization, on penalty of fines plus restitution of the tree's appraised value.

In May a resident coalition of registered voters published its appeal at northbury.condos/protect-our-oaks, and its organizer wrote to some 180 neighbors that the sewer work would sever these root systems and that "once that happens, no remedy exists." That was three months before the excavation appeared.

"There are six or eight trees here that were alive before the Declaration was signed. One of them is being murdered in slow motion," said Robert Bishop, the Northbury resident who organized the coalition.

This morning the coalition asked the city for an emergency Forestry inspection, a hold on excavation inside the root protection zone, and the project's written tree protection plan. Every candidate on tomorrow's primary ballot, both mayoral candidates and all ten council candidates, has been asked to stand together under the oaks before the polls open and commit to protecting the stand.

Contact: Robert Bishop, 630-632-8119, bob@bishopbob.com. Photographs and the resident coalition wall at northbury.condos/protect-our-oaks.