A more than 30-foot-tall monkey puzzle tree is taking up space on Southwest Oregon Regional Airport property - or displaying its unique splendor, depending on who is asked.

And it could be hacked down within the next two months.

“The tree is in the way,” said Coos County Airport District Board President Clair Jones.

Gary LeTellier, the executive director of the airport, is of the same mind.

“It really can't stay where it is,” he said. “Our new terminal is going up there. There is going to be a lot of fill up there - the tree wouldn't survive.”

But not everyone agrees.

“The tree should stay where it is - that's my preference,” said Barbara Griffin, a North Bend resident, and descendant of Louis Simpson, the founder of North Bend.

The unique tree, one of a few dozen located in the Bay Area, stands like a scraggy sentinel off Airport Lane guarding a vacant lot. Much like the famed Dr. Seuss character, the Lorax, Griffin's championing an effort to save the tree from being tossed aside in favor of business interests.

The monkey puzzle tree is surrounded by several burned-up buildings - demolished to make way for a new $18.9 million airport terminal and parking lot - and freshly scraped earth from construction vehicles, hungry to get to work.

LeTellier said the spot where the tree now grows is destined to be sculpted with manmade sand dunes.

But, Griffin, 80, has been making desperate pleas in the last few weeks to save the tree. She persuaded the North Bend Fire Department not to burn the tree down during a burn-to-learn a few weekends ago.

“I can't let anything die unnecessarily,” Griffin said simply.

She's a self-described “lifelong tree lover” (after growing up at the family home in what is now Shore Acres State Park) and is leading the charge to save the tree from destruction. She said she persuaded airport officials within the last several weeks to give the tree to her. If they didn't want it, she said, she would try to find a home for it.

“I understood that nothing needed to be done until after the first of the year,” Griffin said.

But before she worked on finding it a new home, she decided to make a few phone calls. One call was to the Portland architectural firm of Zimmer, Gunsul & Frasca hired by the airport board to design the terminal and landscape plans. She contends an architect told her the tree could be worked into the design. But when she told LeTellier, she said he told her that isn't what he wanted to do.

And then last week, she received a hasty telephone call from airport officials that she had to come and get the tree - that very day - or it would be chopped down.

She was taken aback.

“They were rather short with me at the time,” Griffin recalled.

LeTellier admitted that he instructed workers to cut the tree down and to call Griffin. He relented after another plea, agreeing to let the tree remain standing until the next time the workers descended on the lot- sometime in January.

Last week, while staring at the still-standing monkey puzzle tree, Jones reiterated the airport's stance on the saga in a barrage of similarly toned statements.

“We really don't want it here,” Jones said. “We need to get the site ready. It's not that great of a tree anyway.”

To be fair, the tree is somewhat sad looking - more of a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree than a tree of more renown such as The General Sherman Tree in California's Sequoia National Park, believed to be the largest tree in the world.

Griffin knows this, too.

“It does need to be tidied up,” she said.

LeTellier said he offered to have workers take the tree out, wrap it in burlap and set it aside for Griffin to come claim.

“There is some time for her to make arrangements,” LeTellier said.

But Griffin wants it to stay.

Airport officials say they don't want to spend a penny - other than to remove the tree.

“It costs money to transport it, and that's not in the budget,” LeTellier said. “We're sympathetic to a point, but our budgets are very close. We are not going to expend money on that - other than to cut it down.”

Patrick Myers, the owner of Myers Tree Service in North Bend, estimated it would cost between $3,000 and $10,000 to have the tree transplanted. The day-long project would likely call for the expertise of a tree specialist from Eugene, and would require transportation via a flatbed truck.

“It would be a huge undertaking,” Myers said. “I'd just let it go, and I like trees as much as the next guy.”

Steve Skinner, a member of the North Bend Parks Advisory Board - and friend of Griffin - was tapped to weigh in on the matter.

“The saga. The drama. The agony. The tears,” Skinner said when presented with the topic of conversation.

While he would like to see the tree moved to North Bend's Ferry Road Park, he is dubious it would survive the move, and as such, doesn't have the same fervor as Griffin.

“That would be a good spot,” Skinner said of the Ferry Road location. “I think you could try to move it - but there is no guarantee off success.”

He said the project could prove expensive, unless donations of money, time or services came in. A crane is needed to hoist the behemoth, guy wires would be needed to stabilize the tree until it rooted itself in the ground.

“Would it work? Nobody knows,” Skinner said, noting he has never transplanted a monkey puzzle before.

While he said he stands in Griffin's corner, he said, she needs to take the lead on moving it. North Bend Parks personnel already are overworked and understaffed, he said.

“I'm just trying to give the realities,” he said. “There are a lot of hurdles. I know there are people out there that would do it for a fair price.”