Out on a Limb : Conservation: Criminal charges have been filed against a landowner in Sunland who is accused of chopping down protected California live oak trees without a permit.

Criminal charges were filed Thursday against a landowner accused of chopping down protected California live oak trees in Sunland.

The misdemeanor complaint against Los Angeles bail bondsman Dan Majors, 62, and his company, Major Land Co., alleges that 12 mature oaks were removed from a hillside in the 10300 block of Sunland Boulevard without a city permit.

California live oak and Valley oak trees that are at least eight inches in diameter at a point 4 1/2 feet above the base have been protected since the early 1980s under a Los Angeles city ordinance.

Even when permits are issued, the city requires that the landowner plant two oaks for each one removed, said Bob Kennedy, the city’s superintendent of street trees.

If Majors is convicted, he could face up to six years in jail and a maximum fine of $20,400, said Deputy City Atty. Don Kass.

The city also has the power under a 1991 amendment to the oak tree ordinance to delay any development on Majors’ land for up to 10 years if he is convicted, Kass said.

Majors has not yet sought permission from the city to develop the 16.5-acre site, he said.

“Oak trees are highly valued in California; that’s why we have these laws on the books,” Kass said.

Majors could not be reached for comment. His secretary, Grace Marro, said he is ill.

The case came to the attention of the city late this summer after neighbors complained that workers had chopped down 223 trees on Majors’ land, including 73 oaks, Kass said.

However, most of the trees were legally removed, he said. Inspectors were able to identify only 12 as large enough to be protected under the city ordinance, he said.

The largest stump was about two feet wide, Kennedy said.

Anson Burlingame, a local resident and member of the Oak Tree Coalition who complained to the city about the tree removal, said he cautioned the workers in August to avoid cutting down mature oaks.

But when he returned to the site to check if they had followed his advice, two mature oak trees had been removed, one of which he contended was at least 200 years old.

“I felt sick,” Burlingame said. “Shadow Hills used to have thousands of native oak trees and now there are only half a dozen left.”