‘Memoir of a Redwood’ erected in Memorial Park near where the tree was felled in April 2024

There is a saying among some in the creative community that great art comes from great pain, and that may be an apt description of a recent addition to the public art inventory in Newberg.

A wood sculpture titled “Memoir of a Redwood”, recently erected in the northwest corner of Memorial Park on Blaine Street, is the product of what some consider a painful chapter in the city’s history: the felling of one of the city’s signature giant redwoods.

The sculpture was crafted by Reid Phillips, owner of Stonebender Creations in Newberg, from a chunk of the upper reaches of the historic tree felled in April 2024 at the direction of the city. It joins other pieces in a growing collection of works scattered about town by the Newberg Public Art Council.

An artist’s vision

Phillips characterized the process by which he came to create the sculpture as “existential,” explaining that his wife saw a post on Facebook about a large chunk of wood at Memorial Park that people suggested might be a good project for Stonebender Creations.

Phillips took a look, agreed the wood held promise and hauled it back to his shop to begin carving. It took about two weeks to carve the roughly five-feet-tall piece, first with a chainsaw and then finishing it off with hand tools.

He didn’t charge for this particular piece, but has in the roughly 18 months since he started his business taken on paying jobs carving bears and bigfoots for back yards in Newberg and Sherwood.

The eastern Oregon native said he has been sculpting since he was a kid, but his primary occupations for years were as a farmer and contractor in the McMinnville area — that was until quit his job to undertake a sculpting job.

City says tree has to come down

The city ordered that the tree be taken down because its roots were damaging nearby Blaine Street, as well as the sidewalk and an underground storm drainpipe located seven feet from the base of the tree.

“Continued growth of the tree and its roots will eventually cause the blockage and failure of the storm pipe, which would cause flooding of all the properties that are connected to the storm line in this drainage basin area during rain events,” Public Works Director Russ Thomas said at the time.

Thomas added that for the prior 15 years his department had been required to replace the sidewalk, portions of the street, curbs, storm drains and manholes due to the tree’s roots growing westward.

The public works department contracted with an arborist, who determined that although the tree was healthy, cutting its roots to the west side to prevent further damage to the infrastructure would likely lead to root rot or weakening of the tree’s root system, “resulting in the tree’s premature failure.”

Opponents to the tree’s demise were dissatisfied with the city’s plan to take it down. The Sustainable Solutions Group of the Newberg-Dundee Area, an environmental advocacy group, insisted the city was acting rashly.

“As a group, we are continuing to question Newberg’s rush to take down trees,” said Cathy Holbrook, a spokesperson for the group. “These have been noted and seem to be continuing at an alarming rate.”

On occasions, supporters ringed the tree, sang songs, gave testimonials, prayed and wept at the idea that the behemoth would be brought down.

Sustainable Solutions Group held a public forum at a local church, began conducting a tree inventory and compared the city’s tree policies with that of other cities. The group met with city officials to suggest alternatives or to hash out a compromise.

But, in the end, the efforts were insufficient to save the tree.

“The redwood tree was felled today in Memorial Park,” City Manager Will Worthey said in April 2024. “This brought no one any joy at all and it was a tough decision for our staff and council. It was, however, unavoidable. No one in the community proposed any realistic solution to solve the infrastructure problem that the tree was causing in that part of downtown.”