Please Help Save These Trees:

[amborin]

Century-old oaks may make way -- for silt

On a southern-facing slope of the San Gabriel Mountains.......the dappled sunlight
of century-old oaks and sycamores that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works wants to replace with muck dredged from a nearby reservoir.

snip

Owens is a leader in an eleventh-hour campaign to prevent the county from cutting down 179 coast live oaks and an estimated 70 sycamores in an 11-acre canyon area overlooking Arcadia that is scheduled to become a spreading ground for 500,000 cubic yards of silt, rocks and vegetation scooped out of Santa Anita Reservoir.

Yielding to pressure, Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich on Friday called for a 30-day delay in the Santa Anita Reservoir sediment removal project to study possible alternatives that could spare the trees that locals have come to call the Arcadia Woodlands.

If an agreement with conservationists cannot be reached, a contractor in January will begin clearing the grove at the bottom of a wash abutting the handsome foothill subdivisions.

snip

"Everyone understands that more debris needs to be removed from the reservoir," she said. "But there are not many of these once-common coast live oaks left in Los Angeles County except for remnant woodlands like this one."

In the meantime, county contract workers on Friday were already laying the groundwork for the massive sediment removal project: stringing up power lines; establishing a contractor's office and changing the locks on all the gates leading into the property, which was purchased by the county in the 1950s.
They were also beefing up outreach programs dealing with county plans to mitigate the project, including replacing each felled tree with three new trees planted in nearby wilderness areas and in nearby Big Tujunga Canyon.
"That's all so much nonsense," Owens said. "How do you replace a 100-year-old oak tree with a sapling?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oaks-20101204,0,1304653.story


I don't live near here but occasionally we go hiking in the San Gabriels nearby. It's one of the few areas in Southern California where there are any wilderness areas. Removing these Live Oaks and Sycamores is senseless, especially since there are other suitable spots where the reservoir sediment can be dumped. Further, the area in question is on a slope, so any debris piled on this spot will only drift with the first rains. The city of Los Angeles forbids cutting down California native trees but the County of Los Angeles doesn't seem to have gotten the message.




If you have time, please send an email to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Their email address is:

[e-mail]


Here's a sample email text for anyone who wishes to copy it into
an email:


Dear LA County Board of Supervisors:

Please don't cut down the Live Oak and Sycamore trees to make way for the Santa Anita Reservoir Sediment Project.

Please find some other space to dump the sediment. There are plenty of empty lots that would serve the purpose.

Please don't let the County Dept. of Public Works cut down these trees!

Los Angeles County has so few areas with old growth habitat. To destroy one of those scarce places is unconscionable.

Sincerely,

[Withywindle]

1. Let's be the Lorax

and speak for the trees!

[amborin]

4. thanks!

[Bobbieo]

15. I e-mailed - and signed off as a former Californian - which is true.

[amborin]

18. thank you!

[jmowreader]

2. Come on, guys, you're not thinking hard enough

Dump the shit on the LA County Republican Party headquarters.

[amborin]

5. LOL!

[GSLevel9]

34. are there any Pubs LEFT in LA county? nt

[amborin]

36. there are

quite a few pockets of them

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. This is an abomination, and it must be stopped.

I am sick at the prospect.

Isn't there someplace else where the stuff can be put? Why do they have to pick a beautiful, scenic place full of old trees?

Come on!

[amborin]

6. totally agree!

apparently there are other places to dump the sediment; why cut down these precious old growth native treess?!

[Doremus]

7. K&R!

[amborin]

32. thank you!

[veganlush]

8. email accomplished!

now I like jmowreader's plan!

[amborin]

17. thank you!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

9. Here's the text of the email I just sent to the Board:

I am a resident of Los Angeles County, and I cannot believe what you are proposing to do to these magnificent trees. Is there no desolate abandoned place for the stuff you're digging out of the reservoir? Please reconsider your decision. Also, consider the slope that these trees currently anchor. The muck from the reservoir would just flow downhill in the first rains. I'm sure that would please whoever lives in the area.

I have never been there. But just knowing that there is a place where magnificent trees are growing, especially here in our County, makes me feel that we're doing something right. Cutting down these trees would go completely against that.

The public is watching. Please don't cut down those trees.

[amborin]

13. that's great! thank you!

:)

you phrased it very eloquently! let's hope they listen

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Kick!

:kick:

[glitch]

11. Why on earth would they be so cavalier?

Nevermind, I'm sure it's all about the soulless grasping for filthy lucre -- not wanted the cost of trucking it to somewhere that's already been spoiled.

Or maybe they're just like Bush and Cheney and find pleasure is trashing the environment, simply because hippies value it and they still resent hippies having had more sex than them in the 60s.

[amborin]

14. it's

unfathmomable, and just plain stupid

hopefully between now and January someone will file a lawsuit just on the grounds that the native trees are too invaluable to be destroyed like this, for no good reason

[mimitabby]

12. i sent an email hope it helps

[amborin]

16. thanks!

[Raine]

19. THANKS for info

I'll do it! :thumbsup:

[amborin]

20. thanks!

[glinda]

21. I wrote them an extensive appeal based upon my knowledge of living in a Burr Oak forest.

Or what used to be one.

[amborin]

25. thank you!

[glinda]

22. K & R

[amborin]

42. thank you!

[Lorien]

23. Done!

The property owner of a large apartment complex behind my home cut down about 12-15 100 year old live oaks because ONE dropped a limb on the edge of the roof of one of his buildings. I never knew that hideous yellow three story concrete structure was there until all those trees were taken away. Now instead of graceful branches filled with birds I look out onto a featureless parking lot and blinding security lights. Sometimes I can see my neighbors walking around nude behind their cheap casement windows (it ain't pretty). I fucking HATE that property owner, and anyone who kills century oaks for the flimsiest of excuses.

[amborin]

26. thank you!

What you described occurs all too frequently! So many people are blind to trees, or nature in general. If it threatens their investment, it gets cut down.

[Lorien]

33. Yep, witness the complete lack of interest most DUers have in climate change

the one issue that could render every other issue inconsequential, and we rarely ever talk about it!

[Enthusiast]

24. K&R

Let them put their muck elsewhere.

[amborin]

27. thanks!

[xchrom]

28. recommend

[amborin]

29. thanks!

[glinda]

30. K & R

[amborin]

31. thank you!

[Boudica the Lyoness]

35. email sent

Trying to do my bit for a place of rare beauty that will never be replaced.
Lets us know what happens. Good luck.

[amborin]

37. thank you!

[pinboy3niner]

38. Thanks, Amborin. I live not far from there...

...almost due North of Arcadia, on the other side of the San Gabriels. Arcadia has one landmark that probably is much better known than the city itself--Santa Anita Racetrack.

This Forest Service map shows that portion of the Angeles National Forest, with Arcadia at the bottom center of the map, with Pasadena to the West:

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/forestvisitormaps/angeles/12.php

K&R

[amborin]

39. thank you!

and thanks for posting the link!

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

43. I was looking at the map, found the Santa Anita Dam then the map vanished

It became just had a green page with a little blue square in the middle. I wondered how far they were hauling stuff to get to the area with the trees. Maybe a google earth map would show what this area looks like.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

44. Found this map from a post about a fire last year

But I don't know which canyon the 11 acres are in.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

47. This link looks down at the dam, but the map didn't load the dam for me

But it loaded East, South and West of the dam....Not sure why it doesn't want to show me the dam.
http://www.mapquest.com/?q=34.18361,-118.01861

Anyone know where the 11 acres are?

[pinboy3niner]

45. I located the 'Sediment Placement Site'

It's not far, just South of the reservoir on a southward-facing slope. This DPW study includes a map (at Page 3) which shows both the reservoir and the site where the sediment is to be deposited (Sediment Placement Site, or SPS):

http://dpw.lacounty.gov/wrd/Reservoir/Santa_Anita_Reservoir_IS.pdf

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

48. OK, thanks for that

Now I'll see what I can find on a satellite map.

[amborin]

53. thanks for looking all that up!

i see there are additional people who can be contacted from the dwp report;

i'm going to study the maps tomorrow; i'm not sure where the trees are myself

[pinboy3niner]

55. The DPW study has more maps and photos that pin it down

The plan was to deposit the sediment in the 'Middle Sediment Placement Site' that is identified in the maps/photos. There likely have been some modifications since this initilal study, but it looks like the intended SPS for the project hasn't changed.

The maps and photos in the first 10 pages of the study show the plans for the sediment placement (where the trees are):

http://dpw.lacounty.gov/wrd/Reservoir/Santa_Anita_Reservoir_IS.pdf

[Catherina]

40. Rec'd. Thank you. n/t

[amborin]

41. thanks!

:hi:

[Catherina]

46. You're welcome. Kick for the night folks.

:hi:

[InvisibleTouch]

49. Done! Thanks for the address & info. n/t

[amborin]

51. thank you!

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

50. the letter I sent:

To: LA County Board of Supervisors

I am distressed to hear there are plans to destroy old Live Oak and Sycamore trees and the habitat they create in our world in order to use the site to dispose of sediment extracted from the Santa Anita Reservoir. With all the work there is going on in the world to restore lost habitat I think you should reconsider your options. Expanding this woodland sounds like a better environmental plan to me. Contact the California Oaks Foundation for expertise: http://www.californiaoaks.org/

Sincerely,


(and I may contact the Calif. Oaks Foundation myself to see if they have heard of this project. Thanks amborin for this heads up.)

[amborin]

52. thank you!

that was great!

[avaistheone1]

54. Done

I love trees and those are so beautiful.

[amborin]

56. thank you!

[amborin]

57. kicking, in case anyone else can help with this

[pinboy3niner]

58. Kick