IF A TREE FALLS… Just as Squid started tuning up Squid’s trike for summer romps on the former Fort Ord, the Board of Supes OK’d the county’s Whispering Oaks development, which would level 3,400 coast live oaks to make way for a new Monterey-Salinas Transit headquarters. 


But the plan is set to become a campaign issue next year, if Fort Ord Recreation Users, LandWatch, Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado and County Supervisor Jane Parker can gather the signatures for a June 2012 ballot referendum (conveniently, when three supes are up for re-election). 


But whenever a tree falls in the forest, there’s a developer standing by. Patrick Orosco, a principal of The Orosco Group and owner of The Independent (think Post No Bills) in Sand City, wants to bring more shade to the industrial town. Two bids into a cockamamie idea of uprooting the whispering oaks and transplanting them, Orosco discovered it costs up to $50,000 to move a single tree. Sounds like that plan is destined to go the way of Orosco’s much-hyped City Center farmers market: All talk, no action.


Meanwhile, Squid’s awaiting a word on trees on the chopping block for Monterey Downs, the proposed horse park next to Whispering Oaks. Squid recently found Supe Dave Potter cozied up with Downs developer Brian Boudreau over drinks at Restaurant 1833; probably not the best photo choice for Potter’s re-election posters. 


NO TIME FOR LOSERS… Squid’s colleagues may lack the bushy-bearded bravado of Carmel Pine Cone Publisher Paul Miller (Squid has it on good authority that Miller uses the tears of baby otters mixed with the glandular oil of dehydrated Carmel River steelhead as grooming cream), but what they lack in anti-enviro ego, they make up for in journalistic badassery. 


In the past week alone, a trio of Squid’s teammates garnered national recognition for their Weekly work. Assistant editor Kera Abraham nabbed first place for short-form news writing from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (and an honorable mention for her profile of Cachagua legend Grant Risdon); photographer Nic Coury’s jaw-dropping shot of Jorge Lorenzo’s bike crash at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca got picked up by Sports Illustrated and U.K.-based motorsports agency Gold & Goose (check the Weekly’s website for the photos); and web coordinator Joel Ede’s video of Philip Glass wound up on the website for the famed minimalist composer’s upcoming Days and Nights Festival. 


Keep on coiffing that facial hair, Paul; Squid’ll be over here, basking in the glory of the Weekly’s winning ways and crashing award afterparties.