Group Replaces Trees Chopped by Vandals

Undeterred by vandals who destroyed 10 newly planted trees last weekend, residents got their hands dirty again Saturday morning and replaced the saplings along a Victory Boulevard median.

A handful of neighbors, assisted by a Los Angeles Conservation Corps crew, planted a row of trees that will line Victory Boulevard between Whitsett and Coldwater Canyon avenues.

The community originally scheduled the completion of the landscaping project for this weekend, with the addition of 25 oak and California pear trees. But residents were dismayed to wake up last Monday to find the 10 trees they had planted over the weekend chopped in half. The motive of the vandals is unknown.

“Those trees weren’t broken, they were cut,” said Carlos Ferreyra, president of the Valley Glen Neighborhood Assn. “We don’t know why anybody would do such a thing, but we are going to try and prevent it from happening again.”

Ferreyra said a community surveillance team will monitor the area, especially at night.

The trees were purchased with a $3,450 federal grant from the Los Angeles Urban Resources Partnership. Some of the money will be used to irrigate the medians for the next three years.

The area is one of the last along Victory Boulevard without landscaping. A decade ago, Grant High School students planted trees a block away, but the remaining stretch was never finished. Residents kept after their elected representatives until funding was found this year.

“This was one of the worst sections on Victory that was barren and not maintained,” neighbor Harvey Mayo said. “We’ve just kept waiting and waiting, and now we are finally getting our wish.”