LOS ANGELES : Judge OKs Videotaping of Oaks on Landfill Site

A judge agreed Wednesday to allow a citizens group to videotape the area of Sunshine Canyon where a landfill expansion is planned to assess the potential destruction of oak trees the group hopes to preserve.

The North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens got a court order allowing its members to videotape the site where an estimated 1,000 trees were cut before a stay was imposed.

When coalition member Terry DuSoleil tried to tape the area Friday, employees of landfill operator Browning-Ferris Industries would not allow it, coalition attorney Rosemary Woodlock said. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, who granted the videotaping request, earlier ordered Browning-Ferris to stop cutting trees until a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. At that hearing, Woodlock will challenge the company’s permit to cut down up to 2,500 native California live oaks.

Because one goal of a restraining order is to preserve the status quo, Wayne agreed that the videotape would help her determine what that is in this case.

The crews began tearing out the oaks immediately after a county regional planning commission panel approved the permit June 23, Du Soleil said. The permit allows Browning-Ferris to remove the trees as long as the company replants twice as many oak seedlings on surrounding ridges. The company also was required to put up a $1-million bond to make sure the replanting effort succeeds.

Browning-Ferris plans to level about one square mile of hardwood forest adjacent to O’ Melveny Park, the county’s second-largest public park.

The original landfill site was closed in September, 1991, after 30 years, when the city of Los Angeles refused to renew the company’s zoning variance.