Widened Roads and a Tree’s Death

Two-thirds of the way up the mountain from Brand Park, there used to stand a solitary oak tree, the only one along the motorway leading to the top. I used it as a goal in walks and mountain bike rides. I often sat under it and enjoyed its presence.

A dozen years ago, the Los Angeles County fire chief, in his infinite wisdom about how to protect everybody from the threat of fire, decided the one-lane mountain roads, including the Mt. Wilson Toll Road and the Brand Park Motorway among many others--roads built by pick and shovel, mostly, on steep side slopes--should be widened out to accommodate fire trucks and to allow passing.

Each year since, heavy grading equipment has been used on these fragile roads to widen them. In the process, much loose dirt has been pushed over the side and the banks above the roadways have been dug away.

The rains immediately wash deep gullies in the loose dirt, causing slides, some of which now extend hundreds of feet below the roadways. One such recent slide above Brand Park is visible from miles away.

Letters to local congressmen get nowhere. Reply letters from the county Fire Department deny any damage to the roads and stress the need for maintenance for “fire control.”

The oak tree finally paid the price of such abuse. Over a period of several years, the blade operator had pushed tons of dirt against its trunk, which stood about four feet below the level of the roadway. Finally, during a rainstorm which increased the weight of the dirt, the oak tree broke and died.

If a private citizen had destroyed the oak, he would have been liable for prosecution. Since it was destroyed in a completely misguided action by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, nothing happens. Thus, the county fire chief and his employees are paid good salaries to destroy oak trees and valuable roadways.

ROGER DURHAM

Glendale