Lush Canyon Seen as Hazard and Habitat

For 30 years, James and Marilyn Schindler gazed out their back window past potted geraniums and neatly trimmed juniper bushes into Buck Gully, a jungle of tangled greenery with a stream emptying into the ocean.

But this summer, the Newport Beach Fire Department told the Schindlers and more than 100 other residents along Buck Gully and Morning Canyon that some major trimming was in order.

Officials have been watching the vegetation of these areas for years, weighing concerns between erosion and fire safety, Fire Chief James Reed said. Fire safety finally won.

“There’s just an awful lot of vegetation, a lot of material down in that canyon that needs to be removed,” Reed said. A fire driven by Santa Ana winds could damage acres of expensive homes along the canyons, he said.

The Schindlers and other residents agree that the dead wood and dry grass should go, but they disagree with a Fire Department order to trim all living trees and shrubs to one-third their height. Removing all that live vegetation, they say, would destroy the habitat of foxes, raccoons, opossums and other animals. And they say that erosion is likely to follow.

“We want to see this canyon preserved in its natural state, as it has always been,” James Schindler said. “This is a precious natural resource that is deserving of protection.”

In addition, Schindler and other homeowners along the canyon argue that such large-scale clearing might create erosion problems.

Only 33 of 167 homeowners have followed Fire Department’s orders so far, Reed said. And earlier this month, about a dozen residents persuaded the Newport Beach City Council to postpone for 90 days a decision on the clearing order.

If the council agrees with the order, it may hire a contractor to do the work in the areas where residents will not. Residents would then be billed for this service on their property tax statements.

On steep land, where slopes drop off as much as 200 feet, the work might cost $8,000 to $10,000, officials and residents estimate.

The Schindlers’ regular tree trimmer, James Klinger of Laguna Beach, said clearing brush on their property to one-third its height would take a five-man crew at least two or three weeks and would be difficult and dangerous.

“The only way to do it would be to dangle people on ropes,” Klinger said. “It would literally take forever because the brush can’t be taken out through the canyon. It would have to be taken back up the cliff.”

But even if the task were easier to do, it is not environmentally wise, some residents say.

“If there’s any time this canyon should be left alone, it’s now, because all of that area (inland) has been stripped, and this is a last refuge for some of these animals,” said Ron Kennedy, who lives along Buck Gully.

City officials say they are not worried about that, because no endangered species are believed to be living in the canyons.

“If it destroys the homes of 25 possums or 50 squirrels or whatever it is, they’ll come back,” City Manager Robert L. Wynn said. “They’ll rehabitat the place.”

City officials are concerned, however, about erosion.

“We think that is a valid argument,” Wynn said, adding that the city has asked a geologist to study the possibility.

Some homeowners also argue that clearing the ground of native, drought-resistant vegetation would allow grass to grow, presenting a greater fire hazard.

“That would depend on the type of grass,” Deputy Fire Marshall Jim Upton said. Reducing the amount of vegetation in the canyon won’t eliminate the fire hazard, but it will reduce the size of a fire that might occur, he said.

Councilwoman Jean H. Watt has urged residents to come up with their plan for clearing the canyons.

“The whole canyon and the ecology and the appearance of it are so special that I wanted the people to get together and analyze which methods worked and which properties are more sensitive,” she said. “You can’t just bulldoze in there and clear it.”

Buck Gully residents Ron Centra and Joan Williams are following that advice and have sent letters to property owners in both canyons asking them to come to a meeting Jan. 9 to express their opinions.