So, Will O.C. Need 500 Tree Huggers?

Is there a John Quigley among us?

Hey, don’t look at me, but surely in a county of nearly 3 million people someone must be willing to live in an oak tree for a couple of months. How about two weeks? Twenty minutes?

Mr. Quigley has lived for two months in a towering oak near Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County, protesting plans to remove the 400-year-old tree to make way for a road-widening project. Quigley spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s in the tree, but plans to let someone else take over.

Meanwhile, a development project on track in Trabuco Canyon environs would necessitate cutting down 500 oak and sycamore trees to make way for 162 homes. The plan has sailed through the Planning Commission but still needs approval from the Board of Supervisors.

No word yet on whether anyone will roost in one of the 500 trees.

Wondering why, I run the question by Dan Silver with the Endangered Habitats League in Los Angeles. He is adamantly opposed to the Orange County project but isn’t predicting any Quigleys will show up in the beautiful canyon country here.

“In L.A., you have less open space, so one tree becomes symbolic,” he theorizes. “This tree is a very charismatic oak, granted, but it’s become a symbol of people’s anger for having lost so much. Orange County hasn’t lost quite as much as L.A. County. It still has a chance to do things much better.”

More to Save in O.C.

What Silver is saying is that Quigley’s oak stands in an area that’s already paved over, but that Orange County isn’t. In an odd irony, Orange County doesn’t have the symbol but has a lot more to save. And minus the lone symbol, public support may not coalesce.

The developers say they’ll try to relocate the strongest trees and, beyond that, plant thousands of new trees to offset the loss. Environmentalists have scoffed at that.

I’m not making a formal call to limbs but am curious as to how far Orange Countians will go to stop projects. Even recounting the rampant development over the last generation, it’s not as though there’s no environmental movement here.

Whether in Orange, San Clemente, Laguna Beach or Trabuco Canyon, environmentalists have taken stands. They’ve notched some victories but the county’s shaved hillsides speak for themselves.

So, will the canyon people of Trabuco and Silverado and Modjeska rise up? Climb up?

“From the research we’ve done,” Silver says, “Orange County folks are in favor of open space. If Quigley came down and sat in a tree in Trabuco Canyon, I can guarantee it’d be the same thing [regarding publicity]. But we’re trying to make rational arguments and go through the public process and go to hearings and speak calmly to the board. That’s not bringing in a tree-sitter. Maybe we should.”

Discussion Needed

As a tree-lover but not committed enough to be called a tree-hugger, I can live without the showmanship of a Quigley. What I’d like is for the supervisors to honestly discuss the Trabuco-area project and not merely rubber-stamp the Planning Commission decision.

Asking too much?

“Past history says the board will approve these projects,” Silver says, while hoping the financial troubles of the county Planning Department will persuade the board to take a more detached view of its overall philosophy.

That’s not as exciting as talk about a tree-sitter, but take note of the latest word from Quigley’s effort: L.A. County engineers say the road won’t be rerouted.

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Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at The Times’ Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com.