Supervisors Silently Assent to Destruction

* There used to be an oak tree in Laguna’s Woods Canyon close to where I live. It grew in a tight ravine, its branches crossing horizontally to the sloping ground. One could walk along one of the two branches to the main trunk and sit there with a friend or in solitary meditation. The bark of this ancient giant was smooth and the leaves exceptionally large.

This patriarch oak and 20 or so companions provided refuge for owls and other birds. From underneath its broad base at the bottom of the ravine there was water coming up from the earth and spilling into a patch of green grasses and watercress. In the branches above the water a hummingbird sat on its tiny nest. Deer would come there to the water.

Today this majestic oak and its community are gone.

Recently, Laguna Beach residents watched helplessly as Mission Viejo Co. bulldozers eliminated the trees and the shelter they provided. There was no one to be reached for an explanation of this senseless and sudden destruction, no warnings, no hearings, no discussion.

One does not expect sensitivity from a profit-oriented developer; but why does our county leadership lack the wisdom to prevent cultural, historical and environmental losses such as this? Why was this small remaining growth of oaks destroyed in a time when we are beginning to appreciate the position of trees and wild places in our shared universe? Such increasingly rare places have special value as points of connection between ourselves and the Earth we live on.

The massive grading done by the majority of Orange County developers is the simplest and least costly way to build homes in our canyons and hills. But it destroys the natural contours of hillsides, brings up dead, alkaline subsoil and exposes the new homes to dangerous landslides.

If developers instead followed the natural undulations of the terrain, the new homes could become part of the existing landscape and ancient trees would not have to be destroyed. Such methods are more costly and produce fewer homes, but they preserve the natural structure of the canyons for all the residents of the community.

The Orange County supervisors have a responsibility to protect their present and future constituents. Their inaction is tacit approval for the destruction of our natural surroundings.

JANA RUZICKA

Laguna Beach