High-risk carob trees to be removed this month
An assessment of more than 200 declining carob trees once slated for removal could come in the coming weeks as city officials prepare to select an independent arborist to head the study.
Walt Warriner, the community forester, said on Tuesday that he is speaking with several consulting arborists to receive quotes and expects to make a decision by the end of the week.
The selected arborist will be responsible for reviewing each of the 202 carob trees previously identified as having an unacceptable risk failure, determining which of the shady specimens can be saved.
The City Council last month approved a $395,000 project that calls for the removal and replacement of approximately 300 carob trees that were deemed in a study by consultant HortScience as being in declining health and posing an imminent risk to the public. The project is split into two phases, starting with the removal of the 98 highest risk trees, followed by the additional 202.
Each of the 202 trees will be evaluated by a team of two consulting arborists, the study estimated to take roughly two weeks, according to Warriner.
The HortScience study rated the carob trees on a scale of one to 12, the latter posing the highest threat. The 98 trees in the first phase are ones that have a rating of higher than 10, with the remaining 202 ranked eight and above.
“They’re going to take the current ratings and take into consideration whether a phased removal is possible or whether to continue with the original plan which is to remove the eight and nine (rated) trees after the 10 and 11s,” Warriner said.
City Hall has posted removal noticed on the carob trees rated as 11, planning to remove them starting the week of June 23. The notices for the trees rated 10 will be posted next week, Warriner said.
More than 60 carob limbs and trees have failed throughout the city since the 2001-02 fiscal year, more than half of which have fallen since the beginning of 2005.
The most recent failures occurred at the end of May, involving fallen limbs from two trees in the north of Montana area — one on the 600 block of Lincoln Boulevard and the other on the 600 block of 12th Street. The fallen branch on 12th Street grazed a car parked in the residential driveway. The tree was ranked as having a failure potential of 10.
“We’re trying to work fast to assess as quickly as possible,” Warriner said. “Since the end of March, we’ve had six or eight limb failures.”
Brian Varnum, a board member of the North of Montana Association, was among the residents who requested the independent study, a proponent for preserving the urban forest in the neighborhood if possible. He recently took a closer look at several of the trees slated for removal with Warriner and Randy Little, both with the Public Landscape Division at City Hall.
“It’s to get a better understanding of the plans so I can communicate with local residents about the fate of their trees and the potential of bringing in additional trees where there are currently no trees,” he said.
Shade has long been a major concern in the north of Montana Avenue neighborhood, several residents mentioning during the community meeting last month that they wanted to preserve the trees shielding the sun on their block. Several members of NOMA said they were pleased that City Hall was willing to take another look at the trees.
“We’re not saying we should ignore all the risk factors of trees,” Mark Armour, a member of the NOMA board of directors, said. “What we’re saying is to go back and look at those 200 again and see which can be saved by pruning or any other sort of amelioration.”
Jump hedline: High risk carob trees to be removed later this month
Suggested pullquote: “What we’re saying is to go back and look at those 200 again and see which can be saved by pruning or any other sort of amelioration.”
Mark Armour
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 11, 2008. Read the original PDF.