New Yorker Staatszeitung

The woman who saved the trees
by Ilse Baker

Hildegard von Waldenburg, the German immigrant who saved the trees of the picturesque lane which leads to her home, is not a gun advocate. But when town work crew came along in Febr. 1999, ready to cut down her beloved trees in front of her house, she threatened violence."If you don't stop cutting the trees I will shoot you."she said. She realized that asking the men nicely would bring no results. Her neighbor had tried it and was laughed at. So she decided to fetch the shot gun- its main purpose was to scare the coyotes into leaving the chickens and ducks in peace.

Husband Fritz - sick in bed with pneumonia knows better than to dissuade his wife when she has set her mind on something, so he quickly removed the bullets.

The 200 acre farm on Cold Water Tavern Road in Nassau. New York, where Fritz and Hildegard have made their home since 1959 is framed by beautiful oaks and hickory trees. The residents along the lane have long complained to the town about the condition of their road, what it really needs is a roadbed of a good quality gravel instead of the inferior materials consisting mostly of clay. However when the State gave the town a grant for $50 000 former highway superintendent Joe Meizinger's first thought was to use the money to remove brush and all beautiful trees, which can be worth as much as $1000 a piece. Work had begun down the lane, but no one had thought to inform the homeowners of the town's plans.

The day before Hildegard von Waldenburg had to do battle to save the trees, the same crew had asked permission to do some trimming on overhanging branches. The next day they came for the trees themselves. Mighty peculiar. If you intended to cut the trees would you prune them first. Incidentally, when the crew started to cut on that fateful morning a neighbor telephoned Hildegard with the news that the crew was coming soon to their property. According to the brother of the neighbor, who is an attorney, nothing could be done to save the trees. "Yes, there is something" Hildegard shouted and got the gun. Things got more complicated, because the same day Vice President Gore had come to Albany to give a speech. Therefore the area was full of troopers and TV crews. Someone had called 911, and suddenly Hildegard was surrounded by those troopers and TV camera men filming a grandmother holding five men at bay.

She was arrested and fingerprinted had a mug shot and was charged with second degree menacing, a misdemeanor which carries a possible year in prison. Soon the picture of a granny defending her beloved trees was broadcast all over the world. Radio stations saluted her - "You are a real American," they cheered. A Texas station said: "When they put you in prison granny we will come and riot."

It was the scenario of the whole Nation, and was picked up by the New York Times and the Associated Press. Relatives in Duesseldorf and Bad Nauheim were surprised to find Hildegard in their newspapers. In Germany she was called the Waffen Oma. This immigrant who normally minds her cow, goats and garden, or works on the second part of her autobiography, became a national heroine. She was interviewed on 20 radio talk shows from Boston to Seattl, several TV news programs featured her case, as did "Court TV." She turned down an appearance on the David Letterman show, and she refused to shoot off her gun for the listeners of a Los Angeles talk show, even though she was offered $1000. Another talk show host set up a conference call between von Waldenburg and Julia Hill, the environmentalist who spent two years atop a California redwood to save the tree. Julia Hill told the gun toting granny, as she was dubbed by the media, that she disapproved. Her path is prayer and love. Von Waldenburg agrees but insists, "You can not leave it all to God. I am fighting, so we can still sing America the Beautiful. If we don't do something. America will be nothing more than a paved road from one shopping plaza to the next. I don't want the only country roads left to be made of plastic, displayed in Disneyland." Hildegard is known to the readers of the Staats as the author of the autobiographical Ja, ja mein Kind" which ran as a serial for a year.

Hildegard was arrested at the age of 79. She told the police that she wanted to defend herself, but was urged to accept the kind offer of Terence Kindlon, a well known lawyer from Albany, to defend her pro bono. He had called her as soon as he heard of her predicament. She pleaded "not guilty", but was ready to go to prison for her convictions. It would make a nice chapter in her new book. "This is lots of fun, more stimulating than coffee." was the activist's response to her new status.

After five town courts and three town justices recused themselves because they knew the parties to the lawsuit, and numerous delays and detours North Greenbush Town Justice ElliotIII handed down a 15 page decision dismissing the case, which had languished for almost two years. The judge rebuked the defendant for her actions, but ruled all charges should be dropped. Nobody wanted to admit that Hildegard was right. The lawyer Terence Kindlon found out that the street didn't even belong to the city and the trees were on the property of the von Waldenburgs. Kenneth Bruno the Rensselaer Country District Attorney, agreed to this plan but urged von Waldenburg to apologize to the workers. She refused because she did nothing wrong and had told the workers a long time ago that she was sorry to have caused them trouble. One certainly can feel sorry for them. They merely followed orders. For many month now, they have been teased around town. "Has the little old granny been chasing you guys lately?" their friends like to rib them.

But for Hildegard the results have been mostly positive. She has received only positive mail, and people come up to her and hug and praise her. The new highway superintendent has now managed to widen the road without cutting trees by simply making the ditches narrower and deeper. Would Hildegard do it all over again. "No" she says, "because now the men would know that the gun is not loaded."