As Lovely as a Tree
-
The circus guys on the high wires
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,…
-
Question on trees: living or dead?
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%…
-
The Forestry Division of Griffith Park is afraid of their own trees.
You will recall, faithful readers, that at my last Natural History meeting, I heard a very disturbing rumor: that 900 additional trees had been removed after the fire. These were not burned trees. They were killed for no reason. 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…