SANTA ANA : Going Out on a Limb to Save Trees

South Ross Street in front of Doug Gillen’s house used to look like a tree-lined tunnel. But then, Gillen says, the city’s tree trimmers arrived last week with chain saws in hand and made the 70-year-old trees look like celery stalks.

“You leave in the morning from your tree-lined street and you come back in the evening and you say, ‘What’s that? What happened?’ ” said Gillen, 43, a production manager for an Irvine medical-equipment company. “It’s like night and day.”

Gillen, a 14-year resident of Santa Ana’s Wilshire Square district, joined a small group of his neighbors in complaining to city maintenance officials that the majestic cedar deodar trees were being trimmed much too severely.

Clinton Jones, a senior maintenance supervisor for the city’s Public Works Agency, says that the trees need to be trimmed to maintain healthy growth and keep dead limbs from breaking off and falling on someone.

“You don’t want a lot of breakage,” said Jones, who has been in the neighborhood to explain the trimming to residents. “You don’t want them blowing over. It’s too valuable of a tree to lose.”

All 252 trees in the Wilshire Square neighborhood are scheduled to be trimmed, including the deodars, Jones said. Since the deodars are trimmed only once a decade because of their slow growth, the trimming is very noticeable, Jones acknowledged.

Wilshire Square, about 1 1/2 miles south of City Hall, is bounded by McFadden Avenue, Main Street, Edinger Avenue and Flower Street.

Guy D. Ball, 36, a five-year resident of Wilshire Square, agreed with Gillen that the deodars were being trimmed back too severely. The old trees lining the streets give the neighborhood its unique character, he said.

But if the city can show that the major trimming of the deodars is necessary, Ball said, he won’t argue.

Wilshire Square neighbors feel strongly about their street trees, said Marc LaFont, co-chair of the Wilshire Square Neighborhood Assn. He woke up Thursday to several calls from neighbors wondering what was happening to the deodars.

“When they come to my street and cut the deodars, I’ll probably be upset,” LaFont said. “But to be honest, they could be worse.”

Gillen said his biggest complaint is that city workers trimmed the deodars without taking into account the aesthetic value and character that they give to the neighborhood.

A brochure printed by the neighborhood association to boost the image of Wilshire Square even mentions the beautiful shade trees. Now, Gillen said, “It kind of makes our brochure on the neighborhood looking like an urban forest laughable.”