The Pasadena Unified School District Friday, Sept. 25, announced that protected trees at Longfellow Elementary School will be removed next week after nearly a month of back-and-forth between the district and local advocates.
A Friday afternoon statement said removals will be taking place “early next week” followed by excavation and soil disposal.
“After an exhaustive assessment of possible alternatives, the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) has had to make the difficult decision to remove several mature, protected trees on the front lawn of Longfellow Magnet School to complete the removal of contaminated soil found following the Eaton Fire,” the statement read.
The latest update came a day after the Board of Education announced that it had voted in closed session to explore bioremediation methods to spare trees at Blair High School and at the district main office that had once been set for removal.
“While bioremediation can be a valuable tool when contaminant levels are low enough and site conditions allow for gradual treatment, as is the case in certain areas at Blair, this is not the case at Longfellow,” the district’s statement read. “There, the lead concentrations, the location of the contamination, and the requirements of the state-overseen cleanup make bioremediation neither reliable nor feasible.”
At Thursday night’s meeting, a group of advocates thanked the board for sparing the Blair and Education Center trees, and urged them to follow suit at Longfellow. Each speaker wore a pink dot on themselves in solidarity with tree marked for removal with a similar denotation.
In May, PUSD announced its plan to remediate soil found to be contaminated following the Eaton fire. Part of that plan called for the removal of nearly 200 trees setting off months of discord between district officials, the city of Pasadena and members of the district community.
When the 2026/27 school year commenced in August the district could no longer move forward with tree removals with students back on campuses. However, with Longfellow students spending the year at another site to allow for campus modernization work, the district announced late last month that it would be removing multiple protected trees on the closed campus.
Since then, protesters have been out in front of the school on several occasions advocating that the trees be spared and questioning the expertise used to determine removal as the best course of action. Days after its announcement, PUSD announced that it would hold off on removals and reassess.
In a Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 23, statement, PUSD officials said removals remained on pause as the district continued to review the situation and the underlying analysis. In its Friday statement, the district attached an updated arborist report.
“This additional review and documentation did not change the central finding: that excavation to remove the contaminated soil, whether through air-knifing or other methods would impact the trees’ critical root systems and compromise their stability,” the district’s statement read. “Additionally, the arborist notes that several trees lean toward East Washington Boulevard. As a result, the arborist recommends removal rather than additional air-knifing or excavation around the trees.”