The board of the Redmond Historical Society, a group 130 dues-paying members and a base of around 1,000 people who receive our newsletter, urges Group Health to develop its Overlake property around — not without — most of the significant and landmark trees that make it a special place.

History, and the landmarks that reflect it, is made not just with people, events and buildings, but nature too can provide the inspiration and sense of place that roots us as a community. Group Health’s board recognized that in 1977 when it acquired the property and built a beautiful campus around the trees.

We are not against the development, and we acknowledge that designing around most of those trees, especially the 65 landmark ones, might require a creative approach, but we also think doing so would make an incredible statement about Group Health’s vision as a valued community member.

In this year of Redmond’s Centennial, it’s worth remembering that those trees are much older than our human presence and represent a part of our heritage for which we have few remaining examples.

Christine Himes, president of Redmond Historical Society