In eco-conscious Santa Monica, it came as little surprise when residents decried a proposal to uproot and destroy or transplant 54 ficus trees from Second and Fourth streets — part of an initiative to beautify the downtown district.
What came as a surprise to many of the residents was where the proposal came from — a city government that prides itself as being one of the most environmentally friendly in the country.
The issue really caught steam in May after City Hall began seeking contractors to take on the roughly $8.2 million streetscape improvement plan, a proposal to improve Second and Fourth streets from Colorado Avenue to Wilshire Boulevard, enhancing pedestrian safety and improving lighting.
The plan also includes an element to remove 54 ficus trees, destroying the structurally deficient and transplanting the healthy ones to areas elsewhere in the city, replacing each empty ficus plot with two ginkgo bilobas.
Despite opposition from the public, the City Council awarded the contract during its meeting in mid-August, drawing promises by environmental activists that they will do everything to halt the project, tying themselves to the trees slated for removal.
“No amount of electrically-operated parking structures or hydrogen-powered Priuses are going to make up for the photos of people who are chained to trees as the trees are getting cut down,” vowed Dan Jansenson, an architect who works on Fourth Street.
The Santa Monica Treesavers formed soon after, staging protests and handing out fliers to businesses along the project area. The so-called Treesavers brain-stormed ways in which they could postpone the Oct. 8 date when the crews would begin to remove the trees.
The saga took a turn two days before the project was slated to begin, when a judge issued a restraining order against the city, allowing the overall project to proceed as scheduled, but throwing a wrench into the plans to remove the trees, which were ordered to stay put until a hearing later that month. City officials argued that the delay in plans would jeopardize state and federal funding of the project.
The Treesavers withdrew their injunction request a few weeks after they discovered a certain way in which the trees would remain put in perpetuity — filing a landmarks designation application.
“It brought to the fore the real concern that many Santa Monicans have for the local environment,” Jansenson said on Friday, reflecting back on how the trees affected the city. “People are emotionally connected to the environmental issues and this gets expressed most strongly when it comes to local matters.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 29, 2007. Read the original PDF.