Stately Oak Trees Are Dropping Branches, and Ojai Seeks Answers

Oak branches in this artsy, bucolic town keep falling on people, and officials are trying to figure out an environmentally friendly way of stopping it.

Town officials call it “Summer Limb Drop Syndrome,” when an oak tree, overcome by heat, sheds a limb or two.

On Wednesday, an oak dropped a 24-foot-long branch on three people attending a concert in Libbey Park. No one was seriously injured but the incident sparked new debate between those seeking to protect the oak trees and those trying to keep the trees from flattening people.

“If you don’t want to take the risk of an oak tree limb falling on you, don’t sit under an oak tree,” said Ojai Mayor Suza Francina, a tree lover known here as Mayor Moonbeam. “The Chumash [Indians] and others more connected to the earth knew not to sit beneath an oak tree.”

The mayor said she might consider putting up signs warning about falling oak branches. An information booth is being set up in Libbey Park next month to explain the history, and potential hazards, of Ojai’s oaks.

“Keep in mind that, no matter what we do, there will always be some potential danger associated with these types of trees,” said Ojai City Manager Andy Belknap. “They are huge, and even an apparently healthy tree can suffer a sudden failure.”

In June, a giant oak fell on a truck and a garage in nearby Meiner’s Oaks. Two weeks earlier, 10 people were injured when a massive oak split in half and fell on the grounds of World University of America, a small private college in Ojai.

Public venues such as the concert bowl at Libbey Park are particularly vulnerable because of foot traffic, which damages the oaks’ root system, tree advocates say.

Nancy Graves was one of those hit Wednesday by the oak branch.

“It all happened so fast I didn’t hear anything” said the 57-year-old Ojai grandmother, who was listening to the Ojai Band play a medley of ragtime songs when the branch hit her. “My chair collapsed and I was thrown forward. I was in such pain. I didn’t know branches fall off oak trees. Maybe they need to educate people.”

Graves said she won’t look at oak trees the same way anymore.

“I have caught myself looking at limbs today,” she said. “I don’t want to be fearful of trees but next time I’ll sit farther back.”

Graves, Donna Cowles of Ventura and Merel Glaubiger of San Francisco were taken to Ojai Valley Hospital, where they were treated for cuts and scrapes and released, authorities said.

David Traver, who was playing clarinet with the band when the tree fell, said chaos erupted afterward. The concert was halted as emergency workers attended to the injured women.

“It sounded like a firecracker,” he said.

The tree was roped off like a crime scene Wednesday. Children played under nearby oaks, adults wandered the park and Spike Tenpenny balanced his checkbook on a picnic table.

If he had to choose between a tree and a person’s life, the 69-year-old Ojai man said he would choose the human.

Mayor Francina said some risks are worth taking to preserve the town’s character. “My philosophy is that, if you want a situation where people and nature interact, you can’t be risk free.”

Stan Greene has felt the wrath of the oak tree but still supports them.

“I was standing beneath an oak tree and the next thing you know I was flat on my back,” said Greene, who heads the Committee to Protect the Ojai. “It hit my shoulder and knocked the lens out of my glasses. But they are probably the most important symbol of our area.”