BY BRIAN KELLY, CECILIA GARZA

Chiara D’Angelo sat surrounded by the scraggy branches of a second-growth stand of Douglas fir trees Tuesday afternoon, 70 feet above the forest floor.

Below her unexpected overnight home, she was surrounded by her supporters and fellow opponents of a proposed shopping center that many say is unfathomable and unneeded.

A day later, the forest was gone, and the protesters who had supported D’Angelo’s treetop last stand had faded back to their familiar corner on Highway 305 and High School Road.

Early Monday morning, D’Angelo scaled a nearly 100-foot Doug fir to begin a sit-in on a piece of wood not much larger than a door.

“This is my home, and it matters to me,” D’Angelo said as she sat in one of the 800 trees planned to be cut down to make way for a new shopping center next to the busy intersection.

The shopping center proposal has been in the works for years, and it survived a grassroots challenge earlier this year and was approved by the city in late March. Ohio-based developer Visconsi received approval to begin clear-cutting the land for the nearly 62,000-square-foot shopping center last week.

The development, located directly across from Ace Hardware on High School Road, will include a Bartell Drugs, a KeyBank branch, restaurants, professional services and health care facilities.

D’Angelo’s tree sit — the first in the state since 1999, organizers said — followed a candlelight vigil and demonstration against the development project Saturday night.

Word of the treetop sit-in spread fast.

A crowd of supportive citizens formed at the foot of the tree.

Two Bainbridge police officers were called to the scene just after 8 a.m. Monday and helped direct traffic to ProBuild, a lumberyard located at one end of the shopping center site. The Bainbridge Island Fire Department arrived at the site, but determined D’Angelo was not in immediate danger.

Visconsi representatives, likewise, responded by notifying city officials that D’Angelo had until 4 p.m. Monday before she would be considered trespassing and Bainbridge police had permission to remove and arrest her.

As time neared the deadline, though, Visconsi officials authorized a 24-hour extension to give D’Angelo more time to come down on her own.

D’Angelo continued to stay in the tree overnight.

The purpose of the tree sit, D’Angelo said, was to delay the tree cut and give the community more time to voice their opposition to the shopping center project.

It’s also a demonstration to protect the kind of island life she grew up with for future generations to enjoy, she said.

D’Angelo — who gained media attention a few years ago as an outspoken supporter of the city’s ban on plastic shopping bags — comes from a long line of Bainbridge Islanders. Her grandfather, Art Patricio, served as a ferry boat captain for 50 years. Her grandmother, Lora Hart, worked at Streamliner Diner while she raised her children on Bainbridge.

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