Where Have All the Tree Cowboys Gone?

by Atina Hartunian

I was on my way to see my papou (grandfather in Greek), with the radio on KCRW, listening to a broadcast of Santa Monica’s City Council meeting. It was about the Tree Crisis that had the whole town in a dispute over what to do with the dying ficuses the City of Santa Monica planned to cut down due to fungal infections, decay, old age, etc.

The citizens of Santa Monica gave their voices and opinions, and suggested what to do in timed statements. Some of them made sense, speaking about the shade and architectural beauty that these massive trees provided. Some didn’t; one guy who couldn’t string two words together kept talking about wind power, his manner suggesting he might have been experiencing a flashback. Another member of the community reputed that these trees drew tourists to Santa Monica. Funny, I always thought it was the beach and the promenade. I’m a frequent visitor to Santa Monica, but when I think of it I don’t think of the beautiful canopies along the boulevards.

But the broadcast interested me enough to check out what was going on.

While the City of Los Angeles planned on planting 1,000,000 trees, as initiated by Mayor Villaraigosa, the City of Santa Monica planned on cutting down some of its old ones:

The Santa Monica city council also claimed that because some of the ficuses had contracted a fungus that was rotting them to the core, they needed to be removed immediately. If they weren’t, all sorts of public health concerns and liabilities would come into play: branches falling out of nowhere, killing cars and people on the way down to the ground.

Makes sense. Who wants to deal with that kind of bullshit? Isn’t that why they have the phrase “nip it in the bud”? Coupled with the trees’ nature for their roots to split up concrete, “removing the 54 trees would make streets safer for pedestrians and reduce concrete sidewalk-repair costs and legal payouts to trip-and-fall victims.” According to the city.

Really? The city is concerned with people getting a scraped knee because they aren’t looking where they’re going and might fall? This is more important to worry about than the city’s homeless or the cleanliness of the beach water? Then you know what they should do? Invest in fucking Band-Aid dispensers and Watch where you’re going or Mind the roots signs! It would be much more cost-effective than the thousands in taxpayers’ money they’ve spent on destroying these trees.

I mean, those Big Blue Buses must kill all sorts of pedestrians every year, and they’re still allowed on the streets. It’s understandable to empathize with tree-huggers: all that global warming scare, epidemic fears, and the fact that we need to save all the trees we can. But why did the council wait until it became a problem to finally do something about it? Why didn’t the Santa Monica Park and Recreation Department notify the city earlier? Was there was no effort to help nurse the sick trees before giving them their death sentence?

If you had an ailing grandpa who was slowly losing his faculties, and you knew it was only going to get way worse, would you pull the plug on the guy? So, what to do, what to do? I know! Let’s launch an attack against these forest-haters! Let’s form an organization and call it Treesavers, have a blog, rally the community, let our voices be heard, hold tree vigils, stage/threaten hunger strikes, chain ourselves to the trunks of these trees. Let’s try to pass them off as historical landmarks or something. Let’s cause a scene!

It turns out (as reported by the LA Weekly earlier this year) that the real reason to remove the ficus trees was to facilitate an $8 million project aimed at revitalizing Second and Fourth street storefront curb appeal. In fact, the business owners association claims that the reason why retail stores on Third Street are doing so well, despite the economy, is that “the Promenade is planted with a more flowery tree species.” Ummm ... I doubt the trees are more the problem than the crappy stores that just happen to be there. And, really, what do ficus trees have to so with that?

For a while, the Treesavers were out there fighting the good fight and going forward with their crusade to preserve the street scene in Santa Monica. They even had some of the store owners support the cause by putting posters in their display cases. Ken Salek, who co-owns Nobel Gems with his brother, said, “I’ve been here for 25 years. We chose this street because of the look that these trees created. Fourth Street is known for these trees.”

But,unfortunately, it became a showdown. The battle between green and evil came to a halt when the Treesavers were blindsided by 23 trees being felled overnight. City officials cut down the trees in the early morning.

So what’s become of Treesavers? Where have these mighty tree defenders gone? After they were basically bitch-slapped by the city, you’d think there would be some sort of public outrage. Or that they had some guerilla-esque tactics up their sleeves. A Plan B!

But, no, they’re as quiet as a tree. Maybe, they’re laying on the down low, gathering resources and planning a massive citywide attack. Perhaps congregating some street teams and plotting against certain people in positions of power, so when the time comes they’ll at last take their vengeance.

As of now, their blog is still up, trees are still coming down, and no new strikes are in the works. Nothing except a daily vigil. Or is that just a ruse for the unsuspecting?

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