By Daniel Archuleta
Daily Press Staff Writer

DOWNTOWN Lost in the uproar surrounding the fate of the 50-plus ficus trees on Second and Fourth streets scheduled for removal or relocation is the destinations of the specimens in question.

The environmental activists trying to “save” the trees along the busy commercial corridors are up in arms because they feel the trees should remain in place, but they might be interested to know that a good number of the 31 specimens earmarked for relocation will be moved to other spots along the same two streets.

Some of the trees are due to be replanted at the Santa Monica Airport, while the remainder will be planted in areas throughout the city in need of a little extra shade.

The city’s forester, Walt Warriner, said he isn’t absolutely sure just which locations will be selected, needing to discuss the matter with residents living adjacent to the spots he has in mind.

“We don’t want to say (where the trees will go) just yet,” Warriner said. “First, we go to residents, then we tell them our plans and what we are going to do. We are upfront about how much commotion is going to take place to put the tree there.

“As of yet, I haven’t contacted the residents we are going to disturb with the relocations and it wouldn’t be fair to divulge that information until we confirm that they are OK with it.”

One of the last major tree relocation projects the city embarked on was the Virginia Avenue Park redevelopment a couple of years back. Warriner said that more than 50 trees were relocated from the site to other parts of the city with little uproar or public dissent.

“The only people that can tell [that the trees were moved] are the people who have shade now that didn’t before,” said Warriner of the previous relocations. “Virginia Avenue Park was done two years now. There was no protests then. In fact, I remember an editorial in the Daily Press that said this was a case of the city getting it right.

“I don’t see how that isn’t the case now with this new project.”

In fact, the city has moved hundreds of trees over the past few years with little fanfare or public debate. Many of the trees recently relocated have found a home at various city-owned facilities.

“(Santa Monica) Airport has been a destination for many trees from throughout the city,” said Bob Trimborn, the airport’s manager of operations. “We’ve been accepting trees for the past eight years now and they’ve been growing very vigorously. We haven’t lost one of them.”

The survival rate of trees relocated by the city has been somewhere near 95 percent, according to official statistics. Warriner said that the city takes extra care when moving a tree from one spot to another and that usually the process takes no more than a couple of days to complete. He added that he uses a straight-forward criteria to determine which trees should be moved and how the task should be accomplished.

“First of all, let’s not use the word ‘uproot.’ Something that is uprooted is just jerked out of the ground,” said Warriner. “These trees are being relocated. There is a lot of forethought that goes into it. We have to determine the situation regarding underground utilities below, as well as power lines above, before we make any move.”

He said that the first thing he determines when eyeing a tree to be relocated is gauging how best to remove it from the site without damaging the rootball. Once out, Warriner has to then determine what is the most appropriate method to actually move it to its new site, and whether it will actually make it to its new home in one piece.

The route selected plays a major role in his ultimate decision because many streets have power lines and existing trees that makes safe passage impossible.

“On top of that, we have to decide what’s the value of the tree versus the cost to relocate it. In some cases, a tree might be worth $1,500, but it will cost you $5,000 to move,” said Warriner. “If it is a healthy tree, and it costs less to move it than the value of the tree, I say ‘yeah, let’s do it.’”

He cautions that the ficus trees from Second and Fourth streets aren’t going to be housed temporarily.

“Once boxed up, we move it on the truck to where it is going to relocated,” he added. “Sometimes it is quicker to box them up and store them, but we would have immediate plans to replant them. The whole process should never take more than a couple of days to complete.”

One of the few instances where the city has boxed trees destined to be saved is an empty dirt lot located between Main Street and Ocean Avenue, adjacent to the RAND Corporation’s West Coast headquarters. Actually, the city purchased the lot from RAND and requested that the nearly 60 trees being removed from the site during the think tank’s rehabilitation efforts should be kept for future use.

“They are not really housed there,” Warriner said. “The trees were salvaged from the RAND property before the city bought the site. RAND boxed the trees up. Now we’re going to plant most of them there. Some of the smaller ones (trees) are going to be put in parks and city streets.”

Andy Agle, the city’s housing and economic development director, said that most of the Main Street site will be absorbed by “The Village,” a pending mixed-use project for which the city is currently finalizing plans. He said that most of the trees would be used within the public/private project, but some would be replanted in a planned green space also being considered for the key location.

“I do think there have been other instances where trees have been boxed, but this is one of the few cases that I can recall,” said Agle.

daniela@smdp.com