Yesterday a King County Superior Court judge told the school district that it isn’t allowed to cut down a grove of trees at Ingraham High School [mb]. Now the district has to resubmit their permits and get approval for their expansion project, since they pulled their requests in an attempt to go around the legal troubles by cutting down the trees first and then re-applying for their permits.

The school district wanted to pull the trees down before school started and winter set in, to protect the safety of both the students and the remaining trees. The district swears to plant three new trees for every old one removed, but the neighborhood points out that there are other, less dense places on campus where the school could expand [PI]. (Plus, are three new tiny trees really going to equal the environmental value of one great big one?) District officials worry that the delay will stall the construction, which they wanted to start in February. The students, I imagine, are probably glad that they will still have some trees to sneak out of class and smoke behind, at least for the time being.