OAK PARK : Students Plant Trees to Replace Those in Path of Development

Jacqueline Zajdman was stooped over, her forehead crinkled in concentration, her fingers moving deftly as she busied herself at her task.

She was one of 55 sixth-graders from Medea Creek Middle School in Oak Park who planted oak trees Thursday at Ahmanson Ranch, part of a program to replace trees that would be cut down if a 3,000-home development is approved.

“We are doing this for the community,” Jacqueline said. “We want to keep it beautiful here.”

“I like to plant trees to give animals shelter, and also, to give us more moisture and rain out here,” said Adam Bushmore, another student.

The students, who are studying plants, benefit from the hands-on experience, said teacher Nancy Kollander. “We’ve been studying plants all quarter, and this is an excellent tie-in,” she said.

The kids gathered acorns at one end of the property and brought them back to a nursery behind the office of Ahmanson Ranch in the southeast corner of Ventura County. There, they planted the acorns in small containers where they will be kept until they mature.

In about a year, the young oaks will be transplanted into larger containers, where they will be kept for two more years, said Gil Nielsen, senior vice president of Ahmanson Land Co., the housing project’s developer. The saplings from those containers will then be planted on the property.

In 1989, Boy Scouts planted about 2,000 acorns, according to Ahmanson Land officials. Those trees, which are still in containers, are now about five feet tall and ready to be transplanted.

Ahmanson Land officials eventually want to plant a total of 4,000 trees, as part of a development agreement in which they must plant five trees for every tree they destroy to build the development, said Donald Brackenbush, president of Ahmanson Land.

The company wants to build 3,050 homes, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial space in a hilly area southeast of Simi Valley. Many area residents oppose the project and have filed lawsuits to block the development.

In an environmental review of the project, planners estimated that 1,300 oak trees would have to be cut down, Brackenbush said. The company has altered its project plans and reduced the number to 700, he said.

Planting trees to replace those destroyed by the project is a good idea, said Jacqueline, who added, “But they are going to cut down these hills, and it’s not going to be beautiful here anymore.”

But classmate Ryan Poyer said he is not sure if the planting was worth the effort. “It will take 100 years” for the acorns to get as big as the large, established oaks in the area, he said.