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After the fire: erosion and jackasses
The fire was long over, but the senseless tree-cutting continued. I was quite upset. I just couldn’t accept that the best thing for a park that had lost thousands of trees, would be to tear out 1000 more trees. Not to mention the growing erosion problem. And I felt like a wimp because I hadn’t crossed the forbidden barriers and gone into the burned areas, scout-like, on my own, to find out exactly what the Forestry Division was doing up there… photo by Martin O. Garcia, taken May 10, 2 days after the fire, on his daily hike. His own caption: “Griffith Park, AFTER.” Griffith Park Master Plan Meeting No…
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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…