UPDATE: Oak Trees in Arcadia Woodlands Face Removal Wednesday; DPW Report Released
DPW report rejects alternatives. Construction to commence on Wednesday, Jan. 12.
Construction on the controversial Santa Anita Dam Sediment Removal Project will begin Wednesday, according to a cover page memo attached to the latest report issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (DPW).
Some 179 oak trees, dozens of sycamore trees and other plant life face destruction if the county goes through with its plan.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors issued a 30-day delay in the project on Dec. 7. During that time, the DPW was to look at alternatives to the project.
The DPW hosted a public meeting on Dec. 16 at Highland Oaks Elementary School in which several alternatives were presented by citizens against the removal of the trees.
The new DPW report, turned in by the agency to the Board of Supervisors last night, rejects the alternatives presented. The report is attached to this article.
The project calls for a conveyor belt to move 500,000 cubic yards of debris from the dam to sediment placement sites located within the city of Arcadia on land owned by the county.
About 250,000 cubic yards of debris would be placed on 11 acres of untouched land currently home to the oak trees and sycamores. The other 250,000 cubic yards of debris would be placed on the existing lower sediment site.
The DPW had already presented several alternatives in the project's Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR), all of which were determined to be unfeasible. A copy of the EIR is attached to this article.
Arcadia resident Camron Stone proposed another alternative, called alternative No. 5, to the Board of Supervisors, DPW representatives and Mayor Peter Amundson of Arcadia. Stone suggests placing 125,000 cubic yards of the debris on the existing upper sediment placement site, but the DPW insists that there is not room as the site must maintain some capacity in case of emergency.
The trees are not doomed just yet. The Board of Supervisors could potentially step in and put a halt to the project at its weekly meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 11, though it is not known if the supervisors will discuss the project or the DPW's report.
Even if the Board of Supervisors does not act on the matter, tree advocates are expected to attempt to stall construction. Litigation has been threatened by Glen Owens, the Monrovia Planning Commissioner who has assumed a leadership role in the tree movement.
"The final stand will be civil disobedience at the gate," Stone said.
Oak tree advocates have started on online petition to save the trees. So far, 726 people have penned their digital signatures to the document.
In a show of solidarity, area bloggers have also taken to the tree's cause today.
Patch presented a photo gallery of the Arcadia Woodlands on Tuesday.
Lori Paul
3:20 pm on Friday, January 7, 2011
How ironic that the next article headline on the Patch is "City Council Fines Homeowner for Oak Tree Removal," yet the County, going against public opinion and in support of poor planning process, may allow the removal of an entire, healthy, old oak woodland and other trees in Arcadia at the northern end of the Arcadia Wash Trail. Will anyone fine them for mass oak tree removal? The destruction of the woodland is so tragic and unnecessary. When a 30 foot dirt pile lies where the oaks currently grow... what will the County bury in sediment next? I hope legal action as well as grassroots calls to Supervisor Antonovich will somehow save these venerable trees. May common sense and the trees prevail!
Petrea Burchard
7:45 pm on Friday, January 7, 2011
I wish I could say this surprises me.
Supervisor Antonovich's office phone number is 213-974-5555. He may be able to help, so let's make sure he gets a lot of calls Monday.
Drew Ready
9:49 pm on Friday, January 7, 2011
I wish the slender salamanders living under those trees had a say, the scrub Jays too, let alone our kids.
R Terry
2:14 pm on Friday, January 14, 2011
I heard little of this until a bit late. I live in Monrovia. A friend who has access through his yard to the wash told me I should hike down there to take a look. Little did I realize that the trees were coming down the following day. I actually did hike into the wash on the day the tree sitters were up there to find lots of security and emergency vehicles preventing me from going far enough to really see anything. I was actually on the east side of the wash above and behind a security guard close enought to read what was printed on the back of his shirt. I had to be quiet to avoid detection. Decided to leave and check what the helicopter above me was recording on the news later.
I really wanted to check to see what kind of salamander population there was in the oak grove, it looked like a good habitat from the photos I have now seen...sorry I never hiked into that area before.
The Monrovia Canyon basin above the reservoir was dredged to make it deeper just months ago. It was less of an old growth and fortunately the crew decided to not go a little further up the canyon as the originally planned to where there were older growth oak trees. All the earth was trucked to somewhere else. Too bad that was not done in Arcadia as they could have done. Apparently they didn't want months of truck traffic up and down Santa Anita.
Laura Garrett
3:33 pm on Sunday, January 9, 2011
As John Muir once said, "God has cared for these trees, saved them drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools."
When will the county join the 21st Century and learn to work sustainably with nature instead of struggling futilely to tame it? What a shameful legacy. How embarrassing. It's a short-term "solution" to a long-term problem.
Laura Garrett
Pasadena Audubon Society
susan rudnicki
4:23 pm on Sunday, January 9, 2011
I live in Manhattan Beach, but the time I spend in the foot hills convinces me that the work I am doing to try to thwart this terrible plan is very well worth it. The EIR is terribly flawed, engineering heavy, and completely "externalizes" all the watershed services these venerable trees do for us. The cost to animals and plants and humans who want a respite from the concrete jungle figures nowhere in their short sighted "plan"
Sergio Monteiro
6:40 pm on Sunday, January 9, 2011
I am sad with the destruction of these trees. We need a third party to represent us - or, as Ralph Nader profoundly said it: we need a SECOND PARTY. As long as our choices are restricted to the democrans and the republicrats, neither will listen to the people. Why would they?
Sergio
Ivan Brandler
9:50 am on Tuesday, January 11, 2011
I am saddened and shocked to think these trees would be destroyed to make room for some fill dirt.Why couldn't it be trucked over to the nearby gravel pits alongside the 605 freeway in Irwindale.They have plenty of room there,and it wouldn't disturb anyone.I have hiked in the area of these trees for over 35 years,and it one of the few pristine nature areas remaining in the local area available to local residents.These trees are irreplaceable !
We must unite and protest this pending action.
RANDAL MASSARO
7:05 pm on Friday, January 28, 2011
ARCADIA WAS ONCE THE MODEL CITY OF THE ENTIRE VALLEY.
THE CITY WHICH EVERYONE WANTED TO BE LIKE OR AT LEAST TRY TO.
I SAID WAS !! ( AS IN THE PAST)
YOU OFTEN SEEN LEAFLETS,CALENDARS,ADVERTISEMENTS, WITH TREES, WILDLIFE, AND QUAINT LITTLE PHRASES OR CAPTIONS UNDER THOSE PHOTOS.
BUT THAT WAS THEN ,-- AND THIS IS NOW.
IF ONLY EVERYONE REALLY KNEW THE DIRTY LITTLE TRUTH ABOUT ARCADIA.
ARCADIAS HIDDEN LITTLE SECRET.
THAT THEYRE( NOT )REALLY THIS MIDDLE UPPER CLASS COMMUNITY THATS SUPPOSSED TO BE NATURE FRIENDLY- OR WILDLIFE FRIENDLY. (ITS AN OUTRIGHT LIE)
I CAN SEE FUTURE ADVERTISEMENTS NOW --( COME TO ARCADIA,CA)
WHERE WE TAKE PRIDE IN KILLING OUR WILDLIFE AND BULLDOZING 100 YEAR OLD OAK TREES, ALL IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS.
WHERE THE CITIES POLITICIANS SPEND TAX PAYERS MONEY TO KILL HUNGRY WILDLIFE, AND WHERE THE POLITICIANS IGNORE THE PEOPLE THAT PUT THEM IN OFFICE.
THIS IS BEAUTUFUL ARCADIA, WHERE THE CITY COUNCIL HAS THEIR OWN AGENDA,AND TAKE PRIDE IN IGNORING THERE RESIDENTS.
THIS IS THE REAL ARCADIA,CA.
I WANT YOU ALL TO REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED HERE
THE TREES ARE GONE, AND 20 COYOTES ARE DEAD NOW.
WE CANT GET THEM BACK, BUT WE COULD STOP IT FROM HAPPENNING IN THE NEAR FUTURE--AND IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN, SOONER THAN YOU THINK.
REMEMBER THIS AT THE NEXT ELECTION.
ITS YOUR MONEY--ITS YOUR WILDLIFE--ITS YOUR CITY
GET THE GUTS TO TAKE THE CITY BACK FROM THESE POLITICIANS.
IM RANDY MASSARO, FORMER GREENPEACE REP OF S.G.V