Activists Rallying in Bid to Save Village’s Last Ficus Trees

A weekend-long vigil to protect the last four ficus trees that have shaded the Brentwood Village shopping district for nearly 50 years will be staged starting today by activists.

Los Angeles officials have already cut down 30 trees near Sunset Boulevard and Barrington Avenue as part of a sidewalk repair effort they have dubbed the Brentwood Beautification Project.

Earlier this week protesters began staging daily dances around one of the remaining trees on Barrington Court to draw attention to its pending fate. A candlelight ceremony that drew redwood tree preservationists from Northern California was to be held Friday evening at the tree.

Protest leader Cheryl Snell, a writer who has lived for 25 years in Brentwood, said the daily “elm tree dance” originated in Russia after the nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl disaster contaminated a nearby forest. She said that activists plan to stage the dance for 40 days in Brentwood.

Snell said protesters hope to convince the city that there are ways to control the trees’ unruly roots so that the four remaining ficuses can be saved.

City officials say that pedestrians are increasingly in danger from the sidewalk buckling and cracks that have been caused by the tree roots. They say more manageable replacement trees will be planted as part of the improvement project.