Fairfax : Palm Fronds Available

Fronds cut from city-owned palm trees will be available at West Wilshire Park on Oct. 10 and 11 for synagogues to use in celebrating the Sukkot holiday, a Los Angeles official said.

Palm fronds are a popular roofing material for the temporary structures that observant Jews build in their back yards during the seven-day holiday, which is known in English as the Feast of Tabernacles. The flimsy huts are also built in synagogue yards or parking lots.

Although the demand for palm fronds is great among individuals, the city’s palm cuttings will only be distributed to people who have letters authorizing them to pick up the fronds on behalf of synagogues, said Duane Gute Sr., a supervisor with the street trees division of the Department of Public Works.

The distribution in batches of 100 will be from 9 a.m. until about 2:30 p.m. on both days, he said. The holiday starts on the evening of Oct. 13.

He said the 5,000 fronds to be distributed at the park, 141 S. Gardner Street, are cut as part of the city’s routine trimming of street palm trees. Another 5,000 cuttings will be handed out at a site in North Hollywood. At other times of the year the cuttings go to the dump.