POULSBO — After 48 hours, Kimberly Cisneros reached her limit on Aug. 6 and climbed down from an old fir tree off Caldart Avenue.

With a new housing development being built right next to her rented home, Cisneros wanted to protect the tree she has a special connection with, so she spontaneously climbed it in protest around 10 a.m. Aug. 4.

“She has a connection to (the tree),” said Debra D’Angelo.

D’Angelo didn’t know Cisneros until after the tree-climbing, but the message Cisneros was sending was one D’Angelo approves of.

“She gave the tree a voice,” D’Angelo said, who came out to see the woman sitting in the tree after she heard about it.

After coming down, D’Angelo said Cisneros was “physically exhausted,” and was dealing with a “very emotional” situation, so Cisneros was unavailable for comment by press time.

D’Angelo’s daughter, Chiara, is known for her attempt to save a tree from being cut down for commercial development on Bainbridge Island. Chiara sat in a tree for more than a day last year in August. She also chained herself to a oil ship in Bellingham earlier this year.

Ann Ellis, also there to support Cisneros, and also a new acquaintance of Cisneros’, said the tree-sitting wasn’t just about a tree.

“I think Kimberly is bringing awareness to how we look at development,” Ellis said. “It begs the question: does the development of anything have to include the total exclusion of dynamic, living things? Ecosystems that support our lives?”

Ellis said the trees being removed for the Caldart Avenue development comprised a community of its own, with other plants and animals making the property home. She thinks in the future, people should try to look for a way to develop without removing such communities.

“I just think there’s room for both,” Ellis said. “I’m not against development.

“What Kimberly is doing is not easy. (She is) helping us be more aware of decisions we make in our lives. … She’s speaking to a bigger question of what is most healthy for our neighbors, families, cities … versus what’s easy.

“Kimberly — one woman, in one tree, in my community — is doing her part to raise awareness.”

Cisneros was down from the tree by 11 a.m. Aug. 6, and the construction company began clearing the area around the tree to cut it down within minutes.

According to Poulsbo Police Chief Al Townsend, Cisneros chose to come down from the tree on her own.

Townsend said she’s not being arrested at this time, but if the property owners or construction company decide to press charges, Cisneros will be summoned to court.

Townsend said he thinks this is the first “tree-sitter” incident in Poulsbo, and “if all goes well, we won’t have another.”

At the regular city council meeting on Aug. 5, in light of Cisnero’s protest, Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson brought the issue of clear-cutting trees to the council’s attention.

Erickson is working on adding something to the city’s comprehensive plan about “the retention of tree canopies,” she said, that would help protect forested areas in Poulsbo in the future.

“I’m a strong advocate for trees,” Erickson said, “and do not believe in clear-cutting.”

Erickson displayed pictures of Seattle’s Capitol Hill district, which is the site of hundreds of homes, but is also a forest.

Erickson said that after trees were removed to make way for houses, the new residents planted trees to make up for the loss. She said she wants to see the same sort of idea in Poulsbo — keeping the city green.

“I think we need to set the stage for what we could be 50 years from now,” Erickson said. “Unless we craft ordinances and policies now, (Poulsbo) won’t look good 50 years form now.”