County to Turn New Leaf After Felling Wrong Tree

Los Angeles County road officials said Tuesday that they will plant a new ash tree--and offer an olive branch--at a Calabasas home where street crews mistakenly chopped down a 20-year-old shade tree because of a mix-up in street numbers.

The 30-foot-tall curbside ash was felled Monday as county road workers prepared to replace a root-damaged sidewalk in the 5700 block of Parkmor Road.

The workers were sent out to cut down two trees whose roots had buckled the concrete next door to the home of Donald and Pat Wyman. They cut down one of the trees, but, instead of cutting down the second, erroneously removed the trouble-free tree in front of Wyman’s home.

“It’s the biggest shock in the world to come home from work and see a pile of branches in your front yard where a nice big tree used to be,” said Wyman, an aerospace technician.

Rescue Attempt Failed

Neighbor Barbara Creek, who had requested that the two trees on the curb in front of her home be removed because of root growth, said she tried in vain to convince the workmen that Wyman’s tree should stay before the chain saws struck.

“I said I didn’t think my neighbors wanted their tree down,” Creek said.

“They said they could only cut down one of my trees because they only had one work order for my address. I said my trees were the ones causing the sidewalk problem and they should call downtown and check. They said no, they had a work order for the tree next door.”

Tuesday afternoon, county workers returned to Parkmor Road to compare street numbers printed on their paper work with those stenciled on the curb next to Wyman’s tree.

‘It Was a Mistake’

“It was a mistake, what else can I tell you?” said Al Kelm, district maintenance engineer for the road department. “The work order was written for minor concrete work at three addresses and only two of them had trees that had to be removed.”

Kelm said that, by the time Creek pointed out the error, “it was already too late” to save Wyman’s tree.

“I sure hope the crew apologized. If they didn’t, I sure will. We’ll plant another tree. But it will be several years before it’s the size of that other one again.”

Wyman’s wife, Pat, said she hopes the replacement isn’t “a little tree--some 6-month-old sapling.”

“Not only did they take our shade, they took all the logs,” she said. “They didn’t even leave us with firewood.”