ANAHEIM : Tree Loss Is Unkind Cut to Residents

For 38 years, Joe and Sally White enjoyed the beauty and shade provided by the Colorado ash tree that towered above their Anaheim home.

The Whites say they moved to the neighborhood because its tree-lined streets made it among the most beautiful in the city.

But now, a homemade tombstone reading R.I.P. sits atop some logs that mark the spot where the Colorado ash stood for almost 70 years.

As part of a city street improvement project, all the trees on the city-owned parkway on the north side of West Broadway were cut down two weeks ago. And the south side is next.

“We have a monument to all the healthy trees that were cut down,” said Sally White, 75. “We feel we were betrayed by the city. We were told only the diseased trees would be cut down. Nobody objects to diseased trees being cut down, but we do object to perfectly healthy trees being cut--especially in this day with so much concern about the environment.”

The tree removals follow more than two years of planning and neighborhood meetings that seem to have ended in misunderstandings on all sides.

“It’s not the Engineering Department’s intent to go through helter-skelter and remove trees,” said Arthur Daw, deputy city engineer. “It was our feeling that we were doing what the property owners wanted.”

Daw said that a study of the nearly 60 oak, palm, ash and huckleberry trees lining one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods showed that most of the trees wouldn’t survive the street repairs.

Some of the trees were simply old and diseased and needed to be replaced, he said. And even though a number were listed in “excellent” condition, Daw said they were likely to have been damaged by the project because the street widening would cause roots to be cut and branches to be trimmed.

Given the probable damage to the trees, Daw said he and other city officials were under the impression that the neighbors agreed that all the trees should go and be replaced by new ones. The city plans to plant more than 90 camphors that stand about 12 feet tall.

But the Whites and others thought that the handful of healthy trees on each side of Broadway would be saved.

The residents said they would have preferred to baby their sick trees back to health than wait years for the replacements to grow.

The nearly $1-million project will improve Broadway between Harbor Boulevard and Manchester Avenue. The city will build gutters, repave the streets, fix some sidewalks and upgrade the storm drains as part of a general improvement plan.

Daw said an earlier plan to widen the street was discarded after residents said they didn’t want a bigger street and didn’t want the trees removed. The city plans to notify residents before the rest of the trees on the street are cut down to prevent further misunderstandings.

Sally White said she and about a dozen of her neighbors will approach the City Council on June 26 in an effort to save the other trees.