‘Old Glory’ Leaves Home for New Digs

With the grace and pomp of a Rose Parade float, a 70-foot oak tree that sparked a debate over the pace of growth in north Los Angeles County was towed away Tuesday from its centuries-old home, making way for a road-widening project that had originally doomed it to the chipper.

The relocation of the tree, which neighbors in the Santa Clarita Valley suburb of Stevenson Ranch called “Old Glory,” closed a chapter in a contentious story that began in late 2002, when activist John Quigley climbed into its branches and camped out there for more than two months, protesting plans to cut it down.

The protest generated news from West Virginia to Wales and attracted a wide variety of anti-development forces, as well as celebrities such as Rene Russo. Quigley became a hero to the environmental movement, while the American Spectator, a conservative opinion journal, ridiculed him for “taking tree-hugging to a new level.”

Developer John Laing Homes, which is responsible for widening the road, agreed to move the tree as a compromise, at a cost of more than $1 million. But environmentalists have maintained that trees are not meant to be moved, and worry that the oak will not survive long in its new locale a quarter of a mile away.

“I think they are putting a lot of effort into this, and John Laing has stepped up to the plate, but it’s too bad it had to happen this way,” said Eric Rettke, 38, a resident of the nearby Southern Oaks subdivision, which was developed by Laing.

Rettke was among scores of onlookers Tuesday who witnessed a scene that was at once melancholy, festive and surreal. By breakfast time, Old Glory was rolling down a suburban thoroughfare on 128 wheels. A throng of neighbors walked alongside it, pushing strollers and pointing video cameras at a 100-foot wide canopy that glided along a backdrop of overcast sky.

The tree’s massive roots were tidily boxed in wood. The total load was estimated at 250 tons, requiring the pushing and pulling of a team of specialized trucks that are usually used to tow nuclear reactors and the enormous cranes used at ports to lift containers.

By lunchtime, the tree had taken a right turn to its new home -- an 11-foot-deep gash in the earth at a tiny oak preserve a few yards off the road.

Quigley, a longtime environmental activist from Pacific Palisades, watched the proceedings from behind a security fence. He said he had put out a number of requests on the Internet for a massive group prayer in hopes that the tree would survive in its new home.

“It’s a bizarre spectacle -- a bizarre spectacle,” said Quigley, who has continued to work as an environmental educator. “I just don’t think this is the way we should be interacting with nature.”

Bill Rattazzi, a regional president for Laing Homes, disagreed. Taking a break from his consultations with hard-hatted tree-movers, he said the plan had gone off without a hitch.

“The tree was going to be cut down 14 months ago,” he said. “This has come together very well.”

After workers unbox the tree, they plan to plant it in topsoil collected from its original growing site. It will be nourished with the help of a dedicated irrigation system, and security guards will continue their vigil over it. Laing officials said arborists will continue to monitor the tree’s health for five years.

Lynne Plambeck, one of the activists who rallied around the tree in November 2002, said she was worried about Old Glory’s chances because it was no longer next to the stream that watered it.

Pico Canyon Road, which runs alongside that stream, will be expanded from two lanes to four as part of a county plan to connect the road to California 126 to the north.

Plambeck, head of the group Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, maintains that Laing broke a 1999 promise to save the tree. The group has appealed a Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s dismissal of a fraud and breach-of-contract lawsuit against the company.

Plambeck said the issue was a catalyst in her decision to run against Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who helped broker the compromise. She spent much of the morning near the tree, handing out fliers for her campaign that enumerated the effects of “overdevelopment.”

“The compromise would have been to downsize the road and not move the tree at all,” she said.

But Laing’s efforts impressed Angel Ferral, a Southern Oaks resident who let his kids skip school to watch a tree on the go -- something they would only otherwise see in the “Lord of the Rings” movies.

“I think it’s great that they’re trying to move it,” he said. “Maybe they can save it. But who knows? People die and trees die.”