Unkindest Cuts : Rash of Fellings Blamed on ‘Vigilantes’ Who Can’t See the Ocean for the Trees

It took 10 years for a eucalyptus tree to reach a stately height of about 40 feet in San Clemente’s Bonito Canyon Park.

But it took only minutes for someone to sneak into the park on the night of Oct. 27 and fell the towering tree with a power saw.

The incident infuriated city Parks and Recreation Manager Bruce Wegner, who then turned his attention to a cluster of homes overlooking the park.

Although he can’t prove it, Wegner said, he is almost certain that some people he describes as neighborhood vigilantes chopped down that tree to improve their ocean view. He is sure of that, he said, because the tree was left against a softball field fence instead of hauled away for firewood.

Wegner blames the vigilantes for cutting down more than a dozen other view-obstructing trees in city parks all over San Clemente during the past 18 months.

“We’re getting more and more concerned,” Wegner said. “It can take 10 years for a tree of that size to grow. That’s 10 years we’ve lost.”

After the Oct. 27 tree-felling, Wegner filed a vandalism report with San Clemente police. Then he put a notice in the local newspaper asking residents to call police the next time they hear an ax or power saw being applied to any city trees late at night.

Anyone caught, he said, will be prosecuted for destruction of public property.

Several neighborhood residents, while divided in their opinions on the tall trees, expressed outrage at the illegal cuttings and said they will watch for it.

“I think it’s terrible,” said 65-year-old Dolores Moran, an Avenida de la Estrella resident. “I wish they’d find out who’s doing it. They have no right to be doing that.”

Moran, whose three-bedroom home overlooks Bonito Canyon Park, said she is more concerned about new stores and offices obstructing her ocean view than the trees. Her ocean view has gradually disappeared over the past 30 years due to development, she said.

Jim Chase, 31, whose three-bedroom home also overlooks the park, can still see the ocean from his balcony, but he said the eucalyptus trees grow so high that they partially block his view. Eucalyptuses grow very quickly, attaining a maximum height of about 80 feet, city parks officials said.

Chase, who shares the home with two roommates, said their view is better now than before the eucalyptus was cut down Oct. 27. But he denied any responsibility.

“The primary suspects would be us--three young men,” Chase said with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the police came and talked to me.”

The illegal cuttings have been going on for as long as some city officials can remember. Jerry Hill, a parks maintenance supervisor, said they have occurred since he began working for the city 8 years ago. For that long, too, the city has received a constant stream of complaints about view-obstructing trees. The city has responded, Wegner said, by trying to plant smaller trees.

In 1986, some San Clemente residents became so fed up with neighbors’ trees that they signed a petition to place an initiative on the ballot that would prohibit trees, shrubs and bushes taller than 15 feet on private property if they block someone’s view of the ocean or hills.

The measure was defeated in November, 1986. If passed, it would have been the toughest tree-restriction ordinance in the state and the only one in Southern California.

The most recent cuttings, Wegner said, have been concentrated in three of San Clemente’s 12 community parks: Bonito Canyon, Verde and Mira Costa.

Small Trees Felled

In Mira Costa, he said, someone cut down small trees before they had a chance to reach full height and obstruct ocean views. In Verde Park, three to four fully grown eucalyptus trees were cut down. And in Bonito Canyon Park--an 11-acre canyon preserve that includes a softball field and tennis courts--at least six eucalyptus trees have been cut down this year, Wegner said.

Five of the trees were felled in February, after the city thinned out about 300 of the eucalyptuses to prevent spread of a beetle infestation, Wegner said.

Those vigilante cuttings were particularly aggravating, Wegner said, because the city’s thinning program had already substantially improved the view for residents overlooking the park.

Hill discovered the most recent cutting during a routine morning check in Bonito Canyon Park. At first, he said, he thought the wind had blown the tree down. A closer look revealed the tell-tale cut of a power saw.

Hill became angry.

“You come in and work really hard to try to make this park look good,” he lamented, “and then someone comes along and does this.”

Besides adding more work for his crews, Wegner said, the cuttings also cost the city money. The replacement cost for a eucalyptus, he said, is between $2,000 and $5,000. And he said the city will have to repair an outfield fence damaged when the last eucalyptus was felled.