On a Day to Plant Trees, Others Wish They’d Leave

Never mind the fires, thunderstorms and utility crews.

Come face to face with the Australian longhorn borer beetle, glassy-winged sharpshooter leafhopper or angry chain-saw wielding neighbor and then you’ll realize:

It’s tough being a tree in some Southern California neighborhoods.

Even as schoolchildren nationwide today celebrate Arbor Day by peppering the earth with seedlings, mature trees are under siege by disease, developers and homeowners fighting to preserve their coveted views of the Pacific or city lights.

“There are definitely some bad spots,” said Eric Oldar, state urban forestry coordinator for the California Department of Forestry in Riverside. “Trees are looked at as a way to define a community, but most local governments just don’t know how to manage them properly.”

Flowering oleander trees have been devastated from Palm Springs to Laguna Woods courtesy of the bacteria-carrying leafhopper, and pitch pine canker is squeezing the life from Monterey pines in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

In San Clemente, a band of renegade residents dressed up as Caltrans workers chopped down nearly 50 eucalyptus trees that blocked their ocean vista, while six miles away in Dana Point a stand was rescued thanks to protests by a tree-loving neighborhood.

“People feel very strongly about their trees, and sometimes it gets a bit nasty,” said Mayor Joanne Coontz of Orange, a town embroiled in controversy over whether to replace the towering pines in its historic square. “There are those who love them, and there are those who hate them.”

Environmentalists and professional landscapers say one of the greatest dangers facing Southern California’s tree-lined neighborhoods is reckless tree trimmers who “top” trees instead of properly pruning them. Shearing off the tops stops trees from growing taller, but also ravages their natural growing patterns, causing some to lose their branches and become more susceptible to disease, pests and rot.

The Los Angeles City Council recognized this last month when it passed comprehensive city tree policy to protect and properly maintain the 1.9 million trees shading city streets, parks and other lands.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who heads the panel that oversees tree maintenance, said the city finally realized that the value of its urban forest goes far beyond aesthetics.

Dim Views of Foliage

Healthy trees absorb significant amounts of rainfall, helping to replenish the ground water and decrease the need for expensive storm drains to capture runoff. What’s more, trees improve air quality by absorbing carbon monoxide and help reduce air-conditioning costs by shading homes and businesses, she said.

“It’s a valuable resource, and we’ve got to use it responsibly,” Miscikowski said.

However, foliage is sometimes perceived as more of a hindrance than help, and especially the towering eucalyptus trees that have become a fixture in the Southern California landscape.

In 1998, the Dana Woods Homeowners Assn. in Dana Point ordered scores of eucalyptus trees arching over neighborhood streets to be chopped down. Falling branches and potential lawsuits prompted the decision. But the chain saws stopped when outraged homeowners lined the streets in protest.

“It was shocking. I mean, it really scarred a beautiful neighborhood,” said Maimu Belhueme, one of the residents who barricaded themselves between the trees and cutting crews. “You never know how much you’ll miss a tree until it’s gone.”

The battle ended up in court, where hundreds of doomed eucalyptus trees eventually were granted a reprieve.

Last month, Caltrans filed a lawsuit against four rebellious homeowners in San Clemente who it contends donned the orange uniforms of state highway workers and, over three years, cut down a grove of the trees along Interstate 5 that had been blocking their ocean view.

“Some people just have to have their view,” said Gloria Schlaepfer, head of the Tree Society of Orange County, an environmental group.

Tree-versus-view controversies have been proliferating in Orange County recently because, in many of the communities built 10 to 20 years ago, trees are just now getting to their full size, she said.

“It wasn’t a big issue before, because the trees were only 6 feet high,” Schlaepfer said.

Now, cities such as Laguna Beach have adopted ordinances to help residents protect their views.

Still, tree vigilantes remain a sporadic problem in many coastal cities where ocean views carry a hefty price tag, said Dennis Reed, San Clemente’s beaches and parks maintenance manager.

“It happens every year,” Reed said. “We’ve had trees in our parks cut down in broad daylight before.”

However, one of the gravest threats to San Clemente’s foliage has been a lack of money, Reed said. In 1997, the city stopped caring for trees along city streets and right-of-ways because of budget constraints. More than 60 city trees have since been chopped down because they became overgrown and turned into safety hazards, he said.

“They call it the ‘final act of maintenance,’ ” Reed said.

Government spending on community forests and trees has also declined in Los Angeles and Riverside counties since 1992, while spending has been on the rise in the city of Los Angeles and San Bernardino County, according to preliminary research results by Richard Thompson, director of the Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“There are success stories everywhere, and areas that they are really struggling,” said Thompson, who studies the state of urban and community forests throughout California.

Trees often help define the character of certain towns and neighborhoods, which explains why tree removals can cause such an uproar.

The environmental group ReLeaf Costa Mesa recently protested plans to rip out 45 fully grown trees in front of South Coast Plaza. Liz Meyer, president of the organization, said the removal will only exacerbate the city’s shortage of mature trees.

The plan already has been approved by the Costa Mesa parks commission. It was proposed by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, which leases the property to the posh mall and plans to replace the trees with more stylish Cuban royal palms.

In Orange, the City Council last year was overwhelmed when it considered replacing 16 Canary Island pine trees in its Old Towne Plaza with 52 palm trees. Some nearby business owners complained that the pine trees dropped needles and cones on the heads of unsuspecting visitors, irritating tourists.

But opposition was so overwhelming that the council opted have the issue studied in more detail. A decision has yet to be made.

“It was an election year,” said Coontz, the city’s mayor. “It became a big issue.”

On the flip side of government intervention has been nature. Pests and disease have taken a huge toll on the region’s trees, more so than in recent years, said Alden Kelley, an arborist from Fullerton who worked as a consultant for cities throughout Orange County.

“Because of all the people and goods coming in, this area is just susceptible to problems coming in from the outside,” Kelley said. “And usually, if it’s a pest, they have no natural enemies here.”

Case in point is the Australian longhorn borer beetle, which has been killing eucalyptus groves throughout Southern California. The beetle’s larva burrow around the circumference of the trees, cutting off the water supply and killing the eucalyptus.

Even more devastating is the pitch pine canker, which is ravaging California’s Monterey pines and threatens almost all other varieties of pine tree, Kelley said.

“It’s been spreading like a prairie fire, and there’s nothing that’s stopping it,” he said.