New donated trees take root at the Wedge to replace those lost to storms

A proverb says the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today.

Some Newport Beach locals did the latter Wednesday, turning over new leaves with the donation of three saplings at the jetty’s base at the Wedge surf spot to replace familiar trees lost during heavy weather earlier this year.

Newport Beach Councilwoman Diane Dixon, who represents the Balboa Peninsula, thanked the aptly named Arbor Real Estate, which gave the new trees to the city, which maintains the Wedge entrance as a park.

“I am so thankful,” Dixon said. “The city is so grateful.”

As bodysurfers submitting to nature at the Wedge may eventually get hurt, so did the trees.

February storms that walloped Southern California felled three of four wind-bent Myoporum trees that leaned over the path to the Wedge.

A Myoporum tree typically has a dome-like canopy atop an upright trunk, but alongside the Pacific, the Wedge trees took on a stooped, distorted silhouette — shades of Ansel Adams’ gnarled Jeffrey pine — as they formed a gateway over the sand.

The young trees look more like bushes now against the furrowed trunk of the one surviving tree, which surfers from the Wedge Preservation Society estimate to be about 60 years old.

“These little guys will grow,” Dixon said.

Alan Buchanan, a bodysurfer and an Arbor Realtor, said people come from around the globe to ride the Wedge’s waves, so its trees, too, were known worldwide.

Surfers from the Wedge Preservation Society spoke of the trees as talismans, with visitors rubbing or tapping the trunks before heading into the water. Non-surfers could find shade or solitude under the trees’ boughs. Artists could draw inspiration from their curves.

“People remember it for all kinds of reasons,” Buchanan said.

The remains of the original trees will be fashioned into a bench to be unveiled this summer at Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD