Keeping the Trees Alive

Ravaged by root rot, the century-old oak by a downtown park was the first to fall. Then down tumbled a venerable but ailing tree near Matilija Middle School.

Within months, an oak that is breaking up the pavement on Blanche Street near City Hall will be cut down, a victim of an insidious fungus.

In the past 18 months, this sun-baked valley has lost a dozen graceful, gnarled oaks on city land.

The prominence of the dead trees--and the community’s anguish at their loss--has sprouted something quite unusual: a public campaign to save the oaks.

With its day spas, citrus orchards and quirky artists studios, Ojai is, after all, a modern-day Shangri-La. And in this hidden paradise, residents are not letting their oaks fall quietly.

“Think about it: If we had a building that was 200 years old, and someone harmed it, or worse, razed it, there would be an outcry,” said Caryn Bosson, executive director of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. “Yet the Ojai Valley has some trees that are over 300 years old and dying.”

Perhaps predated only by the sueded Topatopa Mountains that ring the valley, the oaks stand as a symbol of Ojai. Their scattered acorns--when mashed into a paste--fed the Chumash long before 8,000 ranchers, nature-lovers and urban escapees descended on this Ventura County community.

They are a point of pride in this rural, touristy city, where some residents derisively call Thousand Oaks “Thousand Stumps” for its tree-cutting tendencies.

The trees shade the otherwise inhospitable downtown park from the sun’s scorching rays. They canopy Libbey Park, where lovebirds stroll and toddlers toddle. The coast live oaks (also called California live oaks) and valley oaks (sometimes known as white oaks) stud lawns in the Arbolata area of town.

In all, city arborist John Davis estimates that Ojai is home to between 1,000 and 2,000 oaks, most of them less than 250 years old. It’s not unusual for some of the trees, even dozens, to die each year. But area environmentalists want to save as many as possible.

To keep the city leafy, the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and the Horticulture Society are sowing the seeds of oak preservation around town with a full-tilt public information campaign.

“I have never heard of this kind of campaign,” said Janet Cobb, executive director of the Oakland-based California Oaks Foundation, a statewide group dedicated to preserving and perpetuating oak woodlands. “And I really commend them. It’s a wise thing to do--taking care of the native vegetation.”

As part of the campaign, a few thousand easy-to-understand pamphlets on oak care are popping up at real estate offices and the Chamber of Commerce. The booklets instruct Ojai newcomers--many of them Eastern transplants who erroneously believe that buckets of water help the trees--on oak do’s and don’ts.

The groups held a Heritage Oaks Day downtown this spring, where folks learned about the finicky genus Quercus. High-school students trained in the ways of trees have canvassed door to door, chatting up oak owners on proper care of the ancient trees. Ideally, tree-friendly groups are envisioning an Ojai tree master plan that identifies where every tree in the city is, what kind it is and where others are needed.

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Their tree-preserving message is even hitting the road, with slide shows before the City Council and Planning Commission. Homeowners associations are the next stop.

The message: Oaks are persnickety. Especially the geriatric ones. Mistreatment can kill them.

“When they age, trees--just like people--develop all these maladies,” said arborist Paul Rogers, a consultant for Ojai and various other Southern California cities. “The way they should be left is in their natural condition--no irrigation, no planting [around them], let their fallen leaves stay.”

According to Rogers, keeping mature oaks healthy means not watering them during California’s long, dry summer; leaving their surrounding ground free of water-thirsty plants; not changing the height of the soil around their roots and trunks; and hiring a professional to take care of tree-pruning needs.

Seeing the trees treated poorly piques many longtime Ojai residents, each of whom seems to have an oak care pet peeve.

City Councilwoman Nina Shelley’s chief annoyance is the ivy-climbing-up-the-oak-trunk fad. Although it may look quaint and rural, she says, such landscaping is tantamount to a boa constrictor snuggling up to a rodent.

Environmentalist and real estate agent Carla Bard shudders when she sees water-needy ferns or pansies crowding an oak. The conservancy’s Bosson can’t bear to watch when she sees people hiring “Joe El Cheapo Tree-Trimming Service” to tend their trees.

The trauma of dying oaks seems to hit Ojai newcomers hardest, prompting a few tears and words of remembrance, said Shelley.

“Newcomers seem to get more excited about the death of an oak tree than people who have been here for some time,” she said. “They seem to view the oaks almost as something sacred. The old-timers . . . we take it in stride: It’s an old tree, a lovely old tree, and we’ve enjoyed its grace and shade, but now it’s time to go.”

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Because of an tree protection ordinance adopted in 1991, all the oaks that are cut down on private and public property in Ojai are replaced with seedlings.

For the dozen oak deaths in the 18 months, city arborist Davis said 103 seedlings have been planted, though it will take decades for them to mature. Another 38 oaks will take root by year’s end.

And when oaks--such as the weakened one at the Libbey Bowl--are cut down, it is for a good reason.

“The trees that are being removed are evidence of our duty to safety of people,” he said. “Obviously, removal is that last course of action we’ll take. . . . It’s a very difficult decision to make. Many people tend to be upset by this.”

Experience has taught Ojai residents the dangers of an ill oak. Although an oak may look healthy to a layperson, it can be hollowed by rot or other ailments inside the trunk, and thus vulnerable to toppling.

Aside from wounding people and damaging cars, such oaks can kill.

A decade ago at Wheeler Hot Springs, a member of the family that owns the spa and his assistant were killed when a hollowed-out oak fell during an autumn storm.

So the need for preserving oaks must not be taken to an extreme, said Ojai historian Dave Mason.

“Ojai has a way of saying preserve the trees, no matter what,” he said. “Well, plant another one. They grow fast enough.”