Sounding Board -- Jack Couffer

I hope there has been or will be conclusive proof, made public, based

on studies done by qualified arboriculturists without vested interests,

before we begin cutting down our mature Marguerite Street palm trees

(“Newport leaders vote to tear out trees,” April 25).

Five years ago, we heard that these trees were infected with a killer

disease and the prediction then was that they’d all be dead within a

couple of years. You don’t have to be an expert to see that the trees do

have an infection, but they’re hardly dropping dead at a rapid pace. How

many have succumbed? Only one so far in the 700 block; all the others

appear to be in much the same condition they were in when the disease was

first detected.

We’ve also heard this same scare story about Southern California

oleanders that, according to first reports, should all be dead by now.

Some eight or 10 years ago, there was an internationally publicized

fright about a highly contagious and lethal disease that was expected to

kill off the world’s tropical coco palms -- another false alarm that came

to nothing.

To replace our magnificent trees with baby king palms, as has been

done where the mature Canary Island palm that stood until it died at 712

Marguerite St., will completely change the character of the street.

Is it unreasonable to suggest that if, indeed, qualified experts tell

us that the mature palms must go, and if the city can’t afford to replace

them with mature palms of another disease-resistant species, perhaps some

other variety of mature tree will be both affordable and also an

appropriate replacement?

Please, have a look at your pitiful specimen replacement tree at 712

Marguerite, and then let’s get an imaginative landscape designer into the

act before we uglify the street with more scrawny baby king palms.

JACK COUFFER is a Corona del Mar resident.