Ojai Oak Cut Amid Cries of Protest

Protesters in downtown Ojai watched in dismay Wednesday as the towering oak they fought to save was cut limb from limb and fed into the grinding maw of a wood chipper.

“Stop killing Ojai!” they screamed as a dozen Ventura County sheriff’s deputies on the streets and rooftops kept them from approaching the 50-foot tree. One protester was arrested.

The move came a day after an emotional Ojai City Council session ended with a 4-1 vote to allow removal of the valley oak in the courtyard of a small downtown plaza. Mayor David Bury cast the dissenting vote during a meeting that attracted 125 people.

One of the property owners, Polly Bee, said the tree had become a hazard and was pressing onto the building’s foundation and one of its walls. Her efforts to remove it were met by protests from Ojai’s vocal tree champions, who said other remedies had not been tried.

Bee, 75, said she was harassed and threatened. Fliers circulated with her name and phone number, urging people to call her and protest.

“The bottom line is respect for private property and who will control City Hall--our elected officials or a lynch mob,” Bee said.

The answer was clear early Wednesday, when tree cutters protected by deputies arrived about 8 a.m. About 40 demonstrators, some of whom camped out all night, greeted the cutters. One protester, Anita Hendricks of Ojai, was arrested, police said.

Police Chief Gary Pentis said Hendricks was lying in the road and would not obey police. She was accused of resisting an officer and trespassing.

When the chain saw revved up and made the first cut, Patricia Musser, a 38-year-old belly-dance instructor, shrieked.

“I totally felt it,” the Ojai woman said. “I screamed because the tree had no voice.”

The tree, which is 100 to 125 years old, fell in big chunks to the street. Each falling branch elicited a flurry of chants and insults from the protesters.

“Are you proud of yourself?” they shouted up toward the tree trimmer. “Do you feel like a man now? Shame on you!”

John Christianson, who last year tied himself to a 150-year-old oak in the city’s Libbey Park in a futile attempt to save it, stood across the street with tears.

“My heart is breaking,” said Christianson, who founded the Ojai Oak Alliance. “This is a terrible defeat. I am determined to stop anything like this from happening again in Ojai.”

Christianson said Bee and fellow property owner Winnie Hirsch refused offers to find alternatives to removing the tree. He contended repairs could have been made for less than $30,000 without cutting down the oak.

“I think we could have raised that money,” he said.

Bee and Hirsch applied for a permit to cut down the oak several months ago, city officials said.

A 24-year-old city ordinance requires property owners to obtain a permit before cutting mature oaks, senior planner Doug Hooper said.

“A lot of cities, probably most in Ventura County and areas of Los Angeles County, have similar ordinances,” Hooper said.

Bee watched the protesters from inside a shop in the complex. She said the oak was there when she bought the property 39 years ago. Rather than cut it down, she built around it. As the years passed, she said, the oak has pressed on the building, causing cracks and leaks.

“It now rains inside the building,” she said. “There are stress fractures in the wall.”

She said alternatives to removing the tree were impractical. Moving the wall, she said, would require “cutting half the building off.”

Bury said he voted against tree removal because he believed other options were not properly explored.

“I respect private property but a property owner in a commercial zone has certain responsibilities to the community,” Bury said. “We didn’t see alternatives presented by applicants. But the abuse the applicants suffered in this case was very inappropriate--the calls at home, the name-calling.”

Councilman Steven Olsen said the panel Tuesday night approved the planting of three oaks downtown in the same neighborhood. He said his vote to remove the tree wasn’t easy but said he made the decision based on the economic hardship the tree had caused the owners.

“I think under the circumstances they have the right to remove the tree,” he said. “By the time it reached us there was no chance for a compromise. No amount of money would save the tree.”

Both sides, he said, helped create an impasse.

The protesters said they would hold a “wake” for the tree at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Not everyone was hostile over the tree cutting.

John Obraza, 18, rode through the crowd with a sign on his bike proclaiming, “Kill the Tree.”

He said the message was sarcastic and blunt but conveyed his feeling that one tree could be sacrificed for the sake of a building.

“Ojai is so full of these tree-hugging hippies,” he said. “I think it’s ridiculous to fight over trees. Just look at this street, there are trees everywhere!”