As tree removals continue in California, residents raise concerns over future

LOS ANGELES — Glenrose Avenue awoke last week to the sound of chainsaws. Eucalyptus trees that many residents believed shielded some of the homes in West Altadena from the Eaton fire were being cut down without warning.

The trees were sprouting green shoots and to the naked eye appeared healthy — the only sign of life on the side of the street where historic Janes Village homes burned and some neighbors perished. The neighbors who were back in their homes called others who were still displaced. Soon, more than 15 people had gathered in the street to confront the tree service workers, begging them to stop and wondering why the neighborhood had not been made aware of the plans.

Mira Dancy said she feels an obligation to protect everything that survived the fire.

"When all of your neighbors are no longer here — or died — or living elsewhere and lost everything, it just feels like a tremendous amount of responsibility."

Members of Altadena Green, a group of arborists and landscape experts, estimate that the town known for its lush canopy of trees has lost at least 50% of its pre-fire canopy. Some trees died in the fire; others, local arborists believe, were chopped down carelessly during the early cleanup operations.

Months later, the future of many of the town's trees remains in question as new property owners clear private land for construction and as tree removals by the county pick up.

The county slowed tree cuttings earlier this year amid outcry and concerns that those that had been damaged by the fire but were still alive had been removed prematurely. More than 3,000 trees were initially being monitored for health and safety by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. That number has shrunk to 200. The agency recently announced that nearly 60 additional trees would be cut down over the next several weeks, including the eucalyptus trees on Glenrose Avenue. Tree plantings are on hold amid ongoing construction in the area.

The residents in West Altadena questioned why the street wasn't lined with "No Parking" signs typically in place during tree trimmings and why they weren't notified about the work. The plan felt sneaky, they said.

Norik Sahak, a district tree specialist and arborist with L.A. public works who oversees Altadena and met with the residents, said the plan had been announced during an Altadena Town Council meeting a week before and that since the area wasn't populated like it had been previously, significant signage didn't seem necessary.

"If you missed the meeting, you wouldn't know," Iris Gonzalez said. "And then all of a sudden at 7:30 in the morning, these 150-year-old trees are getting cut down and no one can really explain to you why except for someone saying 'oh well it's dead,' even though arborists are coming in and saying [otherwise]."

Eva Story, 85, has watched the trees grow for 55 years. She lived across the street in her home that survived the fire and was shocked that they were being cut down.

"They looked healthy to me."

Sahak has worked with the community to slow tree removals and has often been called to intervene. He said the judgment to remove or leave a tree can be precarious. The trees in question on Glenrose Avenue were deemed unsafe with visible signs of dead limbs and distress, he said.

But landscape designer Wynne Wilson of Altadena Green pointed to one of the trees slated for removal and questioned why one dead limb would lead to an entire chop.

"These are mature trees that are providing canopy cooling and wildlife protection," she said.

While California live oak trees are protected in Altadena, others emblematic to the area are not. There are no protections to prevent healthy deodar cedars, sycamores or pines from being ripped down, as there are in Pasadena.

Some of these healthy trees on recently sold properties have been torn down to make way for construction projects, raising concerns among longtime residents about the intentions of some new homeowners and developers.

Arborist Rebecca Latta of Altadena Green grew up in the unincorporated town and knows the wildlife well. She said that surviving trees also face the threat of dehydration as water has been sparse.

"It's important for people to understand how important those trees are to the livability of anybody who remains in Altadena and for the purposes of anybody who's rebuilding," she said. "They need those trees because our temperatures are easily up 5 degrees because there's so much reflected heat from hard surfaces and no trees to buffer it."

A resident recently tried to enlist the help of Altadena Town Council member Nic Arnzen to prevent a massive healthy-looking deodar from being cut down at the end of her block, just above the town's Christmas Tree Lane. The private property was sold earlier this year, public records show, and the tree was ultimately taken down to make way for construction.

Arnzen, who lost his home in the fire, said he tried to get in touch with the new owner to appeal to their decision, but wasn't able to reach him.

"When you have someone purchase a property … I definitely hope that they will take into account the full community, the whole perspective of what we lost and what we can't hold on to. Clearly that didn't turn out this time," he said.

There are differing views about the future of Altadena's trees. Arnzen said some residents fear the trees could fall, pointing to instances in Paradise where trees left standing for years after the fire that ravaged the area finally succumbed.

But many others believe that moving too fast to destroy what's left of the area's canopy on private properties and the public right of way would strip the area of what character and nature is left, and could cause further damage by removing windbreaks believed to have protected homes.

"I know it's a fear that every single one of us has — what's going to happen when the Santa Anas return if we don't have the protections that we had last time?" Gonzalez said. "You can't know the primal fear that brings for people."