Griffith Park Blog » As Lovely as a Tree

Dew drops on my window.

Donna Barstow — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:03:06 +0000

: Image by RodneyRamsey via Flickr

Have you noticed any “moisture flow” in Los Angeles today?

That’s what Fox News is calling this rainstorm that has already lasted 2 days!

Of course, this has all the weather people on the edge of their seat, but it’s not so much. As the LA Times (reluctantly) admits:

No major flooding or mudslides have occurred with the rainstorms hitting Southern California…
In February, a slow-moving rainstorm triggered severe flooding in La Cañada-Flintridge…

Oh, okay, we had to go back 11 months for drama. Yawn.

As a long-time resident here, I thought the weather men and women were exaggerating…so I downplayed the rain here.

Meteorologists helpfully bring up La Nina when LA gets any moisture. And as always, predictions for La Nina and/or El Nino are that we will get a lot more rain, or a lot less rain.

All I’m wondering is, is it okay for me to be a sarcastic weather girl in my news reports? And if I’m wrong about weather predictions, should I apologize, or ignore my mistake, like meteorologists do?!

It’s raining in Los Angeles, CA (examiner.com) There’s a good cartoon of El Nino by Steve Greenberg at the link.

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You could hug a Dalai today.

Donna Barstow — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:51:11 +0000

The Dalai is coming, the Dalai is coming! To Los Angeles!

Saith the LA Times:

The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism arrived in Los Angeles on Friday and planned to spend the weekend here in support of Whole Child International, a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of orphaned and abandoned children. In an interview with The Times, he acknowledged that there had been no progress in the latest round of talks with China over his call for greater autonomy in Tibet.

Hmm, I don’t know what that means.

His L.A. visit included a luncheon speech Saturday and a public address scheduled for Sunday at Gibson Amphitheatre, where he will be joined by musician Sheryl Crow.

I do recognize the name of Sheryl Crow, however. It’s too bad that a religious leader has hired Sitrick to get more PR… JUST KIDDING! Apparently, they’re just “good friends.” I don’t have a cartoon of Sheryl, but will an artistic image of Sheryl Crow using for commissioning a Genuine Oil Painting of Sheryl Crow in highest professional quality, completely 100% hand-painted by high-skilled oil portrait artist. Art style: art-nouveau do?

Anyway, the reason I noted this is because I was wondering what to do for my next cartoon for Slate, and I had been reading about Tiger Woods’ impending conference, and then Dalai Lama’s secret visit to the White House, and things snowballed from there. This cartoon is in LA Daily News today. (print only) It’s not in the LA Times because, well, the Times Sunday cartoons are outsourced, and run by a cartoonist in Lexington KY.

From the LA Times:

As expected, Woods did not reveal when he would return to playing golf, saying he will return to therapy Saturday “for guidance on the issues he is facing.”

Wearing a dark blazer and a blue shirt, Woods often had tears in his eyes during his statement, telling a group of reporters he was responsible for the scandal that has engulfed his family.

UPDATED: 8:47 a.m.: Woods also appeared angry when he asked the media to respect the privacy of his family.

The LA Times cares about your feelings.

I am one of the very few (seemingly) who believe Tiger Woods was hung up by his toes for his very personal issues. I wouldn’t read anything about it. Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes were stupid, and I never laughed. I DON’T CARE WHAT PEOPLE DO IN THE BEDROOM. And who am I to judge his marriage dealie? Maybe they had an open marriage.

More about the cartoon, the Dalai, and even Tiger Woods over at The Opposite of Wrong.

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Tiger Woods, Meet Mr. Oak.

Donna Barstow — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:58:18 +0000

Tiger Woods had an accident November 27th. Tree was unharmed, however. From the AP:

The Orlando Sentinel reported that an orange and white barricade sat on top of a hole in front of Woods’ home. About 10 feet away, there was a tire track near an oak tree in his neighbor’s yard. The tree had a few scuff marks but was largely unscathed.

Woods also hit a fire hydrant at the same time (2 AM on his driveway), although no report yet on whether water issued forth.

Tiger Woods was taken to the hospital and released.

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Fountain of youth in Fern Dell?!

Donna Barstow — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:51:55 +0000

Made a great discovery for my first blog post in the LA Weekly! And I didn’t get any comments, but I got 3 tweets, which was nice.

L.A. mystery: Fountain of Youth natural spring in Griffith Park?

Did Fern Dell residents living along the southern edge of Griffith Park find a Fountain of Youth?

The mystery surfaced in the heat of mid-August, when the nearby American Film Institute (whose headquarters are located near Griffith Park), Immaculate Heart High School and two homeowners found water leaking into inappropriate areas. The Department of Water and Power insists its pipes — recently bursting and creating sinkholes in other parts of L.A. — are not to blame.

Back in 1929. a natural spring was discovered in Fern Dell, and some called it the Fountain of Youth. Here’s the fascinating story:

Local resident Gerry Hans says that in the 1920s, news of a natural spring spread among Angelenos, who dubbed it the “Fern Dell Spa.” He points to Mike Ebert’s book, “Griffith Park, A Centennial History,” which reads:

People were trekking to the southwestern corner of Griffith Park so they could fill jugs and bottles with water. Word had spread that the water from a particular spring at Fern Dell was special…Others attributed health-enhancing qualities to it. There was even some playful talk that it was the fountain of youth.

The Park Department capped the spring and had it piped to Los Feliz Blvd., but neighbors complained that it flooded the street. Later, the Park directed it to spigots, and even in 1967 people were coming for the water.

Nice photo! Of Fern Dell walkways, by chotda.

Go read the whole thing (slightly edited by Jill Stewart) over there.

It started when the all-knowing Bernadette Soter mentioned to me that Fern Dell had some unusual water problems in 2 houses there, and also at AFI and the Immaculate Heart High School. Since both the Park and the city are desperate for water, this was interesting enough. But it got much hotter when Gerry Hans quoted Mike Ebert’s book above! (I really have to get that book. Several people on the PROS committee have quoted things from there, and it’s amazing how TMZ-like some of the stories are!) What if this IS that healthy spa/fountain that bubbled up back then? Wow!

What I didn’t include in the LAW post: they still have that original underground fountain of youth water in 3 spigots at the Ranger Station! It did go bad in the 60′s – they suspect from runoff from lawns, so I don’t know if it’s potable now, as LADWP never got back to me (SURPRISE.)But I will let you know when/if they do. Because I will be the guinea pig and go get some of it if it’s not poisonous.

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Now’s your chance to change the world!

The circus guys on the high wires

Donna Barstow — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:25:50 +0000

I thought I should add to my post below that the LA Department of Water and Power has more of a true safety issue than Street Services: they have to trim trees that come too close to high-power wires. The story they have repeated to me several times is that once a palm frond touched a high power wire and 25% of Glendale had no power for several hours. Well, ok, I can see that, even though the power goes out here at least once every year anyway, when there are strong winds on the towers, or hail. The wires make a big cracking sound just before they go out, and that is a warning to turn off your widescreen monitor and computer or tv quick, if you love them. We have power towers on this street – you can see one in my photo below of Two Birds- and the towers sizzle when rain hits them!

Downtown Los Angeles across Silver Lake. I actually love these towers, and the combination of trees and man-made!

About 5 years ago we got a notice that they would be coming through to trim on a Saturday. (They often pick Saturdays; can’t call the city to complain then, can you?!) I called several supervisors at DWP on Friday to query them. Two guys told me (and I won’t embarrass them by naming them – THIS TIME), “I hate trees, and I wish there were none allowed near any wires.”

Now, I know that that is not true of all of LADWP, as they have a really wonderful program that gives away 7 sapling trees, with dozens of choices, to any address that wants them, so long as you attend one meeting on tree care. They even deliver them!

But it’s scary, nonetheless, to think that these guys work for the city. Anyway, they promised very minimal trimming. Instead, they plowed through and cut 25 feet off some trees. (The DWP subcontracted this work to Davey Tree Services. What does that tell you?!) The street looked like it had gotten a buzz cut. I was so angry at their broken promises that I kept calling until I got the actual DWP guidelines for trimming around high wires (don’t have the link in front of me), and it said it should be 10 feet, not 25 feet! They sent some supervisors over and offered to retrim the trees on our street. Little late, mates.

So THAT is why I have my own special DWP guy, Adrian, who is licensed, and comes to personally oversee the trees in front of our building.

If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. So ask for a licensed arborist.

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Fountain of youth in Fern Dell?!

Question on trees: living or dead?

Donna Barstow — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 01:23:10 +0000

Here is the second recent comment I wanted to respond to:

Does anybody know (specifically) who’s in charge of ordering trees to be cut at Griffith Park?

I’ve been a frequent runner on many of the trails in Griffith Park over the past 5 years and I’m intimately familiar with its pre and post-fire foliage. I witness the removal of many trees and shrubs that were clearly not dead after the fire.
I was in the park yesterday (9.30.07) in one of the many cordoned-off areas of near the merry-go-round parking lot.
To my dismay, I discovered that about 7 of the large pines, that are scorched on about 70% of the lower tree but green at the top, are marked with a white dot. Presumably, the white dot indicates the tree is slated for removal because nearly all the other ones with the dot are visibly dead.
It would seem that the person who marked the live pines for removal didn’t bother to look up at the top of the tree where it’s clear that the tree is alive.
Does anybody know (specifically) who I can contact to find who’s in charge of ordering these trees to be cut?
Please let me know ASAP
Linda

For some reason her important comment went into the spam filter, so I didn’t see it for a couple of days. She also included her phone number, which I redacted. But this can’t be said enough: the new supervisor of Forestry in Griffith Park is lb, and her phone (which is public) is 213 485-7512. If you want to reach the head honcho for all parks, including, Griffith Park, it’s Mukri at 213 928-9033.

Hope that helps, Linda. I fear for the life of those trees in any case. Please come to our next PROS meeting, though!

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Terrorist Trees

Donna Barstow — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 03:09:13 +0000

You will recall, faithful readers, that at my last nh meeting, I heard a very disturbing rumor: that 900 additional trees had been removed after the fire. These were not burned trees. They were just chopped down.

Now Vicky Israel, Griffith Park Manager at the time, had said that the plan was to fell about 160 trees after the fire, as they were in danger of falling. She said this as part of the official report, in front of the Neighborhood Council. It was sad, but understandable.

But hundreds of trees? Not understandable. So I started making phone calls. The first place I called, of course, was the Forestry Division of gp. Laura Bauernseind, Manager of the Forestry Division for about a year, is an ISA Certified Arborist, I was relieved to find out. Relieved, because I’ve been keeping track of such things for both the Park and the City of LA for some time now. This is one of the lower categories of certification, but we should be grateful that it isn’t just a Climber Specialist, or Aerial Lift Specialist. :) Because, see, only 5 of the 35 people in the Forestry Division, all of whom work in the field, have any certification at all. (And, by the way? There is no team who actually plants trees in the biggest city park in the country. They leave that up to volunteers, like Tree People. No, all they do is cut down trees, or violently trim them.)

pb Dawn Meredith, path to Dante’s View. Before the fire.

So I spoke with Laura, and she said that yes, they were taking out a lot of trees, and had been for 3 weeks. But it wasn’t 900 trees, more like 1200. And the DWP Street Services was helping them. More work for everyone! Overtime! Part-time employees!

My voice kind of breaks when I get upset. It’s embarrassing. It happened now. “Who exactly made this decision? Were fire experts or tree experts brought in finally, like the city promised?”

“No, I made the decision,” she said chirpily. “But it was tree by tree. Each tree was thoroughly inspected and a decision was made on whether it had to be removed. ” She admitted that she had no experience dealing with fire or its aftermath.

“So these were all burned trees?”

“No, we would never try to remove the burned trees. These are unburned trees next to paths or trails or roads. Or bridal trails, the picnic areas, the tennis courts… They’re not burning now. But maybe they’re burning inside, in a place where we can’t see it…These are trees that could possibly hurt someone.”

“HOW?” I said.

“We only removed trees that had a potential to fail, Ms. Barstow. We can’t let anyone be hurt by a tree. A tree could prove to be an eminent hazard. We have to mitigate the city’s risk.”

“Oh, so this is a CITY thing. Just to protect yourself from lawsuits?!”

“I am offended by that! I don’t think I want to talk to you anymore.”

That’s when I knew I must be doing something right.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, but you are being very cavalier by killing 1200 trees on city property when we’ve just lost thousands. Not to mention the Mayor’s Million Tree Project. So you are saying that they weren’t burned, but you just worry that one will suddenly fall over?”

“We don’t know if something is happening inside of the tree,” she said frostily. “And we aren’t always taking down the whole tree. Sometimes we just take down a branch.”

“A branch. You are spending taxpayers money to take down branches on a hiking path?”

You get the point.

Now, at the last Natural History meeting Ranger Anne (more about her later) said that a group of workers came across one tree that was still burning in the roots, like coals, I imagine, 3 days after the fire. It must have been a troubling sight, this one tree, even disturbing. Were trees secretly acting strange in other places? That was the only report. Was it worth killing 1200 more trees because one had burning roots? Had trees become a secret menace to the park? Obviously, the Forestry Division, none of whom had any fire experience, thought so.

Then I called Jeanne Hruska at cb’s office and asked why, if we had consulted experts from all over the state on how to manage affairs after the fire, the Forestry Division had not consulted with any of these about urban forest issues, and were taking down trees willy-nilly, because a branch might fall down, or there might be an invisible fire growing in a tree. She agreed that this was a problem. I also called Mike Shull Superintendent of Planning & Development for Parks. I had seen him speak at the GPNNC meeting, and was impressed with his candid and solution-oriented ideas. There’s an engineer for you!

He said that the city had brought in biologists to get advice on Emergency Debris, soil, burn areas, vegetation, wildlife, landmarks and environmental law. But the fact that no one had advised on, or was overseeing the Forestry Division continuing bulldozing and removing of living trees was a growing concern.

I also called muk. No call back, which was the usual, but I give good messages. to be continued…

Oooh, just came across a great link I had to share, from LA Voice! I’ll talk about the details of the gp “Master” Plan for later, but yes, trees are the first thing to go:

Apparently, City Hall wants to make L.A. more like New York. You see, Central Park is 843 acres. Griffith Park, by contrast, is 4210 acres. Obviously our park is far too big, and needs to be cut down to size. How embarrassing! Leave it to the career politicians at City Hall to spend your money on “park reduction” surgery.

Do you know of anyone, any taxpaying citizen, anyone from planet Earth who has ever complained that we have too many trees in this town? Have you met anyone who called for more pavement in this green oasis? Me, neither. But City Hall politicians need to redistribute your money to campaign contributors, so something’s got to give. In this case, it’s L.A.’s tree population.

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