Citrus Squeeze : Farmers Slice Down Groves That Gave Orange County Its Name

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

In the past, most groves were cut down because of the onslaught of suburban development. This time there are agricultural reasons: The trees are getting old, less productive and other crops will be more profitable.

As much as 1,000 acres of aging groves in and around Irvine are expected to be cut down over the next few months, reducing the amount of land in the county used for orange farming 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 city 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 be removed one day to make way for expansion of the college, a spokesman said.

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

Farmers say many of Orange County’s groves are more than 25 years old and no longer produce the quality fruit needed to compete in the world market.

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 decided to cut down as many as half the trees to make way for 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.”

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 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.

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 which crops to grow and remove. The city of Irvine has for several years discussed the possibility of purchasing groves to preserve them as part of a recreational area. So far, no firm plans have been presented.