Blighted Carob Trees at Root of Culver Dispute

Their bark is worse than their blight.

That was the hope of Culver City residents who did not want to see 147 diseased carob trees lining Pickford Way and Westwood Boulevard uprooted, but an independent tree surgeon hired by the city last fall has confirmed otherwise.

According to a report made public at the most recent Culver City Council meeting, at least half of the carob trees suffer from severe heart rot that has decayed the core of the trees and caused at least a 50% “loss of strength.” The remaining trees also suffer from heart rot, but to a lesser degree.

Now it appears that some, if not all of the trees, may be removed.

Petition Submitted

“We want to keep the trees around,” said Ken Judy, a Pickford Way resident. “They’re big, beautiful and shady. To me they look very good.”

In an effort to save the trees, Judy submitted a petition to the council last September signed by about 50 Pickford Way residents.

“The Culver City Council wanted to take the trees out about 10 years ago, but they decided to just prune them and do some repair work,” Judy said.

But those repairs, made in 1974 to breaks in streets and sidewalks caused by the roots of the trees, were done before officials knew of the rotting, Councilman Ron Perkins said.

The heart rot is caused by a fungus that burrows into the trunk and roots of the carob trees. On some trees, areas of bark have been stripped away as a result of the fungus.

Council Vote

At the Feb. 11 meeting, the council considered a motion to remove all of the trees. With one of its five members absent, the council reached a tie vote and then decided to have its staff compare the cost of piecemeal removal of the trees to that of total removal. The council will act after studying the cost comparison.

Perkins, who along with Paul Netzel voted to keep as many trees standing as possible, said he wants to wait and look at cost comparisons before deciding what to do. Netzel said the piecemeal proposal would probably cost more, but that would not necessarily change his vote.

“If it’s a matter of delaying the inevitable by only a year or two, it wouldn’t make much sense (to remove the trees one at a time),” Netzel said. “In any case, we need to do some curb and sidewalk work,” he said, referring to the cracks and bulges caused by the trees’ roots.

Aesthetics Considered

The street repair was one reason Councilman Paul Jacobs voted for uprooting and replacing of all the trees. “If any of the trees’ roots get cut during the repair work,” Jacobs said, “they’re going to have to be cut down anyway.”

Aesthetics also played a part in Jacobs’ vote. “With the piecemeal plan, you’ll have half the trees as decaying carobs and the other half as small trees that are some other species,” he said.

But Jacobs listed health and safety of the trees as his biggest concern.

Joe Mabrie, Culver City’s environmental maintenance manager, recommended that the trees be uprooted because of the safety threat posed by the possibility of them falling during storms and high winds.

“We had a specialist look at each tree and all the trees are dangerous,” Jacobs said. “It’s a question of balancing the community’s expense against keeping decaying trees in the neighborhood,” he said.

Roots to Be Cut

Along with Jacobs, Councilman Richard Brundo also voted to uproot all the trees now.

According to Brundo, the roots of all the carob trees would be cut by curb and street repair. “It’s necessary to find out what effect this would have on trees that are already dying anyway,” he said.

Jacobs and Brundo agreed that their vote is probably not popular with residents but, Jacobs said, “by preserving trees that are substantially diseased, we would not be productively handling the problem.”

A disgruntled Judy took a different view. “You don’t take out all the teeth if just one is decayed,” he said. “And you fill in the cavities on the ones you can save.”