Orange Trees Losing Ground : Agriculture: Nearly a third of the county’s groves are being removed to make way for more profitable crops such as strawberries and tomatoes.

Nearly a third of all the remaining orange groves in the county are being removed this year, in what some fear could be the beginning of the end for the once-bountiful crop that gave Orange County its name.

As much as 1,000 acres of aging orange trees in and around Irvine could be cut down over the next few months, reducing the amount of county land used for growing oranges from 3,021 acres to about 2,000 acres, officials said.

For some, the vanishing trees are a saddening reminder that an era may be ending.

“I feel like we are losing part of our heritage,” said Paula Werner, an Irvine councilwoman. “We are losing the thing that we are known for. At the rate the county is going, there’s going to be very few groves left.”

One of the area’s best-known orange groves lies at the entrance to Irvine Valley College on Jeffrey Road. But even portions of this 20-acre, 5,000-tree grove may one day be removed to make way for expansion of the college, a spokesman said.

The disappearance of the trees is hardly a new trend: 65,000 acres of the county were covered with orange trees in 1940, but the number has been steadily declining since.

Until recently, the biggest threat for the groves came from rapid suburban development. Now, farmers say, removing the trees makes agricultural sense.

Many of the county’s groves are more than 25 years old and no longer produce the quality fruit needed to compete in the world market, farmers say. They believe they can make more money with row crops such as strawberries and tomatoes--both of which have surpassed oranges as the county’s biggest crops.

The most recent round of tree removals began this summer on 2,000 acres of Irvine Co. land leased to Treasure Farms. After much study, Treasure Farms has decided to cut down as many as half the trees to make way for more profitable row crops.

Officials from both companies said the fate of the remaining trees will rest with the market. And marketability depends on whether the groves can bear suitable fruit.

“With the trees we are keeping, it’s a gamble,” said Alan Reynolds, general manager of Treasure Farms. “We are keeping the younger ones in case the market turns around. But the outlook market-wise doesn’t look good.”

Cutting down the trees follows longstanding agricultural practices, said Larry Thomas, vice president of corporate communications at the Irvine Co. “Farming is a case of changing crops to meet demand,” he said. “We have to assess . . . how to best make use of the farmland.”

The fortunes of Orange County’s namesake were not always so bleak.

Oranges have been an integral part of the county’s heritage since the 1870s, when pioneer Richard Hall Gilman planted some of the county’s first Valencia trees. The county’s mild temperatures and fertile soil provided ideal conditions for the trees, which are sensitive to frost and heavy winds.

Land speculators played up the “Mediterranean flavor” of orange farming when luring Easterners to the area in the late 19th Century, historian Jim Sleeper wrote in “A Hundred Years of Yesterdays.” By the time the county broke away from Los Angeles in 1889, the name “Orange” was a logical choice.

The orange-growing industry prospered during the first half of the century, when the county boasted of groves from San Juan Capistrano to Fullerton.

But after World War II, the trees rapidly gave way to housing tracts as the county’s population exploded. The number of acres used for orange farming plummeted from 30,000 in 1960 to 5,400 in 1980.

Today, most of the remaining groves lie on the eastern edges of Irvine and Lake Forest. Some continue to produce top-quality fruit, but Treasure Farms officials said that many of their trees have simply outlived their usefulness and cost them money to maintain.

A group of residents who live near some of the leveled trees tried in vain last month to save the grove, saying it was a pleasant reminder of the county’s agricultural past.

“When the houses were built here, they didn’t tell us that the (trees) would be cut down in a few years,” resident John Dinkel said. “I think (the Irvine Co.) needs to be more sensitive to the residents.”

The county gives farmers wide latitude in deciding what crops to grow and which to remove. Irvine has for several years discussed the possibility of purchasing groves somewhere in the city to preserve them as part of a recreational area. So far, however, no firm plans have been presented.

Disappearing Act

Orange grove acreage is fast diminishing in Orange County. Acres of orange trees: 1940: 65,000 1960: 30,000 1970: 16,000 1980: 5,400 1992: 3,021 Source: Orange County agricultural commissioner