CAMARILLO : Project Requires Removal of 290 Trees
A county road project that will take down 290 trees along Santa Rosa Road in July will cause more birds to disappear from area skies, a local environmentalist said.
“Development has moved in and the birds have moved out,” said Cynthia Leake, vice president of the Environmental Coalition.
Leake said that when she moved to Ventura County 13 years ago, she saw hawks, eagles, wrens and shrikes. But now she doesn’t see them here.
“I don’t have any birds anymore,” she said. “It’s a sad story.”
About 111 lemon, orange and avocado trees will come down in the $2-million project that is intended to improve Santa Rosa Road, whose edges have been deteriorating, said county engineer Mal MacKinnen. Property owners will be compensated for those trees, he said.
Another 179 poplar, Peruvian pepper and eucalyptus trees will be chopped down, but replaced with saplings if the property owners want them, he said.
With the trees out of the way, the county will widen 3.4 miles of the road by a couple of feet, and add an eight-foot shoulder on each side, MacKinnen said. Tree replacement will come at the end of the project, which is expected to last nine months.
The project will start on Santa Rosa Road near Camarillo, west of Penelope Place, and end at Gerry Road.
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