ALISO VIEJO : No Violations in Cut Trees, County Says

The leader of a local environmental group wants the county to probe the destruction of 58 oak trees that were cut down by a developer, but a county official said Tuesday there were no apparent violations.

Former Laguna Greenbelt president Elisabeth Brown, who said the trees were at least 100 years old, said the developer, the Mission Viejo Co., should not have removed them while the environmental review process was still underway.

“The worst fears were realized,” Brown said. “We’re going to certainly protest to the county. It’s up to them. They’re the lead agency in this thing.”

Brown is also a biologist and member of the Coastal Greenbelt Authority, a panel formed to manage the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, which is next to Aliso/Wood Canyons Regional Park.

The grove was removed Friday from Corral Canyon in Aliso Viejo, near the edge of Aliso park, at the western edge of the next phase of a housing development.

Mission Viejo Co. spokeswoman Wendy Wetzel said the developer had a right to remove the trees, which she said were sickly and not preserved as part of the regional park.

“These trees are located in the area slated for future development. . . . The very best groves of oaks and sycamores, the most environmentally sensitive land, that 2,600 acres was preserved in the regional park,” she said.

“It was not a healthy grove in the first place,” she said, adding that a tree survey last year revealed decay in the root system, trunks and branch structure and that some of the oaks were hollow inside. “In fact, some of them were already dead.”

Wetzel said the trees were destroyed under the deadline of a new federal law that prohibits any noise within 500 yards of known gnatcatcher area, which would include the regional park.

“We had a federal deadline that we had to meet,” Wetzel said. “That way it doesn’t disturb their nesting season.”

Bob Wingard, director of regulations for the County Environmental Management Agency, said to his knowledge the county has not issued any approval to remove the trees, nor would it be necessary.

Wingard said that he met Tuesday to discuss the issue with county officials from the planning, and harbors, beaches and parks departments.

“In our discussion, we weren’t aware of any deadline that had to do with the gnatcatcher,” Wingard said.

Wingard said Brown called him and he responded by sending county grading inspectors to the site Tuesday, but they did not find any grading violations.

“We’re not aware of any violation of county ordinance or code,” he said.

Wingard also said the county isn’t likely to take further action on the matter unless there is new information.

Gary L. Schwager, who had been able to view the grove from his Top of the World home in Laguna Beach, said he will raise the issue at his neighborhood association’s meeting on Wednesday.

“It would be horrifying to me to think it was done by mistake or done without giving it the full due process of law,” he said. “It used to be a beautiful little secret place, with oak trees and shaded. Now it is the same ugly brown as the rest of the construction area is.”