Henderson Vows to Save Century-Old Grove of Trees

Councilman Bruce Henderson argued forcefully but unsuccessfully Wednesday to save a small grove of century-old eucalyptus in Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve from a “chain saw massacre.” But he vowed to keep on fighting until he wins a reprieve for the handsome trees.

Removal of the 3-acre grove of eucalyptus at the eastern end of the 3,000-acre strip of greenery surrounded by urbanization has been approved as a mitigation project by the state Department of Transportation, which must destroy about an acre and a half of wetlands in construction of a section of California 56, an east-west freeway that will link inland areas with the coast at Del Mar.

Henderson, backed up by a videotape of the eucalyptus trees, a stuffed koala bear and a room full of supporters, urged the Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve Task Force to reconsider its earlier decision approving the $420,000 Caltrans project and to choose another site in the park for the mitigation.

Henderson, who has hinted at a possible run for mayor in 1992 when Mayor Maureen O’Connor steps down, touted the confrontation over the eucalyptus as an “early city issues test” for a rival aspirant to the post, County Supervisor Susan Golding. Golding sidestepped the issue by refusing to second Henderson’s motion to reconsider the issue.

The councilman held a press conference in the eucalyptus grove in March, pledging to preserve the trees that Caltrans plans to replace with indigenous plants such as sycamores and cottonwoods. Because of council redistricting and the recall of former Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt earlier this year, Henderson gained a seat and a vote on the Penasquitos task force.

Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer and Bernhardt voted to approve the Caltrans project at a November meeting of the task force. Golding, the third member, was absent.

Caltrans officials said the mitigation work would start about the first of the year and take about two months. “Native riparian woodland” will replace the Australian eucalyptus, which a Caltrans architect said were planted in the late 1800s and had “out-competed” native trees and shrubs, “dropping their leaves and suffocating other plants” and exuding “a poisonous oil” that made them useless as forage plants.

Henderson defended the eucalyptus grove as “one of the most beautiful sites in the park,” where deer could be seen and birds could be heard. He passed around pictures and showed a videotape of the grove to show that protective ground cover abounded. He said the eucalyptus, which is not a native plant, “is native in a sense because it was born here, and it grew up here without human assistance.”

Cutting down mature trees to create a mitigation area is “environmentalism run amok,” Henderson said.

The councilman proposed three alternate sites in the preserve as replacements for the eucalyptus grove as mitigation sites. John Wright, a backer of the eucalyptus grove preservation, said a two-year Caltrans irrigation project to establish the native-tree grove would require diverting Penasquitos Creek into a pipeline, drying up an already established wetlands that depends upon the natural creek flow for its swampy habitat. Other eucalyptus supporters said the mitigation project would destroy the last remaining fishing holes along the creek and estroy the frog population.

Wright argued that the mitigation would create “a two-year fenced-in bald spot’ in the preserve.

Backers of the project to plant native trees in the canyon in place of the alien eucalyptus included the preserve’s citizens advisory committee, composed of planning group members from surrounding suburban communities, the Sierra Club, Audubon Society and representatives of park user groups.

Golding conceded that Henderson “has made some very valid points here,” but declined to reopen the issue decided last November. “If this were a year or two ago, I might have reconsidered it,” she said, explaining that now a change in the project might cause a delay in construction of California 56 and the loss of Caltrans mitigation and construction funds.