Burb’s Eye View: Upgrades include hopes of eradication

When the upgrades at Johnny Carson Park are completed this year, a new stage will replace the old one. It’s not big enough to bring in a band for a concert, which is just as well: The beetles are already there.

When parks and recreation employees began the $2.7-million revitalization project in April, they quickly discovered a beetle species had destroyed many of the trees in the park. As of last week, 36 trees will be removed from the park, and 137 new ones will be planted before the park reopens early next year.

Some of those trees were scheduled to be removed because of their proximity to the stream bed that runs through the park’s center. The stream’s concrete bottom is being taken out during the project.

But other box elder trees in the park showed signs of a specific fungus that the polyphagous beetle likes to eat, destroying the host tree in the process.

Glen Williams, landscape and forestry superintendent for the city, knew that once he saw the telltale spots on some of the trees’ bark from the infestation, more would follow.

“It’s the case of saying, ‘I never see red cars on the freeway anymore’ and then you see red cars for the rest of the day,” Williams said.

One factor helping the beetle profligate is the drought. When trees have adequate water they produce enough sap to flush out the beetles, Williams said.

If the beetles are damaging a tree, it will look as though someone spit on it — the tree develops wet spots on its bark about the size of a quarter. City officials do not expect a wide infestation in surrounding neighborhoods, but they are monitoring trees in the area.

“In general, and I will knock on wood, the female only flies half a mile (in a lifetime),” Williams said.

Nearly everything in the 17.6-acre Johnny Carson Park will undergo an upgrade or replacement this year. The park’s irrigation system, sprinkler system and paths and bridges are up to 40 years old.

The Tonight Show Playground, built in 1993 with money from the Jay Leno Foundation and the Youth Endowment Services Fund, will also be replaced.

The building where the park’s restrooms are located will be untouched, as it was renovated within the last decade.

The city, which owns 8.7 acres of the park, is spending $854,000 for the upgrades. The rest of the funding came from the state Natural Resources Agency (Prop 84 funding for $1.78 million) and other state and federal grants.

Public Works Engineer Sean Corrigan said weather will be a factor in how fast the park can reopen. A warm fall would be better for growing grass in the park, and the longer it has to grow, the stronger the turf will be.

“It’s a beautiful park and it’s going to be in tip-top shape,” Corrigan said.

Johnny Carson Park comprises a stretch of land along Bob Hope Drive between Riverside Drive and Parkside Avenue, across the street from the former “Tonight Show” studio. Just over its shoulder loom the hills of Griffith Park and Forest Lawn Cemetery along their slope.

It juts northward from the L.A. River and serves as an undeveloped and idyllic border between the heavily developed city above and the green cemetery and horse trails below.

Lifelong Burbank resident Lori Leck-Cohen remembers visiting the park as a child. Her mother would take her and her sister there after a long day riding horses at Griffith Park.

The girls’ agenda was a simple one: “To catch the tadpoles that were in the mossy stream free-flowing in the park,” she recalled.

“I loved it … such good childhood memories I will always remember,” Leck-Cohen said.

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BRYAN MAHONEY writes about Burbank neighbors and the place they call home. He can be reached at 818NewGuy@gmail.com and on Twitter at @818NewGuy.