Westlake Village : City to Weigh School Arborist Contract

By some miracle, it was the dead of night and there were no children around when the oak tree came crashing to the ground.

The next morning, as city officials surveyed the scene at White Oak Elementary School in Westlake Village, they realized how lucky the community had been.

Just to be safe, officials had an arborist examine another mature tree at the school, said Westlake Village City Manager Ray Taylor.

Taylor said the arborist reported that the tree had root rot and that it, too, was in danger of falling.

Since the incident about a year ago, Taylor said, “I’ve seen trees in a different light.”

As part of a plan to protect public safety, the City Council will vote at 7:30 tonight at City Hall on Taylor’s recommendation to award a $6,500 contract to arborists James Dean and Kay Carlson. Over an eight-week period that would begin immediately, the arborists would examine the city’s public oak trees and suggest ways to improve maintenance, Taylor said.

Officials from Westlake Village and other cities are beginning to realize that oak tree maintenance is a science, and that there are lots of new developments in the field, said Rosi Dagit, a conservation biologist for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Because oak trees in parks and other public places are usually situated near lawns, they often get too much water and develop root rot, she said. The solution is to remove portions of lawn around the trees and reduce the amount of water they receive.