Winds Final Insult to Landmark Tree

A historic Ficus rubiginosa, one of the oldest and largest trees in Orange and the object of a two-year campaign to protect it from a developer’s bulldozers, toppled over in 45-mph winds Saturday, the apparent victim of the very act that saved it.

“It was a landmark in east Orange,” Councilman Dan Slater said of the 100-foot, 150-ton tree in the parking area of the Ralphs Market at 2620 E. Chapman. “This is a great loss for the city.”

No injuries were reported when the tree fell about 9 a.m. during brisk Santa Ana winds that swept across Orange County, felling many lesser trees and spreading roof fires in another area of the city.

Planted in the early 1900s by rancher Thomas Flippen near his house, the tree--also called a Morton Bay Fig--was listed by the city in 1973 as historic and worthy of protection. In 1992, however, its fate came into question when the owners of Lucky’s Market, on whose property it stood, decided to remove it to expand their facility.

Public outcry eventually led to a plan to save the tree by moving it about 150 feet. The move--described at the time as the most ambitious project of its kind in California history--took place in 1997 at a cost of about $100,000, paid for by the market at the site, which had become a Ralphs.

Several observers said Saturday that the move apparently weakened the tree’s root system, paving the way for its demise.

“Moving the tree killed it,” said Slater, who was elected shortly before the plan was approved. “Arborists warned us that that would happen and now it has. It’s that simple. If the tree hadn’t been moved, it would still be alive and healthy today. It was a tragic mistake that I regret.”

Tim McCormack, a landscape architect who at the time was a member of the city’s design review board and who opposed the move, said he wasn’t surprised by the tree’s collapse. “Any time you move a tree that big,” he said, “there’s a 50-50 chance that it won’t survive. I think the city needs to take this as a lesson.”

The manager of the Ralphs Market, Ralph Castle, declined to comment. About $50,000 in damage was done to the market, Slater said, and two cars parked in the lot suffered damage totaling about $30,000.

“I got paged while I was out planting trees” in another area, the councilman said. “I went over to look at it and it was a disaster.”

“I’m certainly sorry to see it happen,” Mayor Mark Murphy said, “but we are blessed that no one was hurt at the scene.”

Murphy said he would ask city staff on Monday to investigate the causes and ramifications of the fall.

“While there is no way to replace this tree,” the mayor said, “I want to make sure that a tree is replanted at that location of a formidable size to continue the heritage. I don’t want to see the tree forgotten.”

Slater agreed. “I think a lot of people will miss this tree,” he said. “It was clearly a landmark. Grocery stores will come and go, but a tree like that is irreplaceable.”