County, city to work together to clean up park’s trees

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Some residents are searching for a way to breathe

new life into Bartlett Park, where years of neglect have killed off trees

and other landscaping.

Neighbors there said at least 18 trees along Coldwater Drive, which

lines the park between Adams and Yorktown avenue, as well as

ground-covering flora, have died and need to be replaced.

“This area is important to a lot of people because they walk or ride

their bikes along the berm here,” said resident Fanny Hunter, who has

lived in the area for 37 years. “This could be a very pretty area, one

that we can be proud of.”

The city owns the 33 acres comprising Bartlett Park, though 17 acres

of the site are leased by the county flood control district for use as a

water retention basin. In severe storms, water that would normally flood

into surrounding neighborhoods is trapped in the basin instead.

“As part of their lease agreement, the county is responsible for

landscaping the area,” said Jim Jones, the city’s supervisor of park

maintenance in the parks, trees and landscape division. “We’d like to see

the area improved, but we don’t have the time or the funds to do it.”

Some of the trees have toppled over completely, prompting concern over

the safety of walkways along the the basin wall.

Orange County Flood District officials said they have leased the

Bartlett retention basin from Huntington Beach since 1972, and the dead

trees have not escaped their attention.

Dale Dillon, field operation manager for the county’s public

facilities and resources department, said the district has identified

about 70 dead alder trees throughout the Bartlett retention basin, noting

not all of them are just along Coldwater Drive.

Mild winters and an inoperable irrigation system have aided in the

trees demise, county officials said. According to city tree officials, a

combination of weed spraying, wrong tree choice and poor water flow to

roots is responsible for the dead trees at the levee along Coldwater

Drive.

“We’re planning to remove the dead alders starting on Feb. 20, though

there aren’t any plans yet about replacing them,” Dillon said.

City officials hope to work with the Huntington Beach Tree Society to

replace trees removed from Bartlett Park. According to Dillon, the county

would certainly be open to their help.