Behind the scenery

If there’s a silver lining to last year’s devastating Southern California wildfires, it may be that denizens of picturesque Lake Arrowhead and surrounding communities in the San Bernardino Mountains are learning to see the forest for the trees.

A two-headed menace consisting of drought and a voracious bark beetle is wreaking havoc in the forest, killing millions of pines and firs and prompting warnings about the potential for even more catastrophic fires and a permanent shift in the area ecosystem.

But some curious things have happened on the way to environmental upheaval: Most locals have come to embrace the notion that fewer trees will improve the health of the forest and their safety, not to mention the views from their decks. And, the changing landscape notwithstanding, Lake Arrowhead’s real estate market is as hot as it’s been in years.

“Our sales are up more than 50% over last year, and last year was a wonderful year,” said Bruce Block, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Skyridge Realty in Lake Arrowhead. “We’re removing 600 trees a day, but it hasn’t affected the beauty. This is something that should have started 70 years ago.”

Last year’s fires charred more than 90,000 acres in San Bernardino County, causing eight deaths and destroying hundreds of homes in Arrowhead-adjacent Cedar Glen. Thousands of houses in Lake Arrowhead -- from $125,000 cabins to $10-million lakefront mansions -- stood in the path of the flames, and many likely would have burned if the weather hadn’t turned wet.

Not surprisingly, the fires threw a blanket over the local real estate market for two months. They also gave rise to fears of a slide in property values and a major hit to the regional economy.

But it hasn’t turned out that way.

On a recent weekend, with the sun shining and SUVs double-parked in the overflow lot at Lake Arrowhead Village, potential home buyers were fanning out en masse through forest neighborhoods.

“Inventory is really low because things are selling so fast,” Block said.

There are several reasons for the surge in activity.

The ups and downs of the stock market during the last few years have had an impact as more retirees and those with discretionary income ditch their mutual funds for investments they can enjoy.

The full-time population of Lake Arrowhead is just 10,000. But that swells to 40,000 on some weekends. The community and other year-round mountain resorts such as Big Bear Lake and Running Springs make up a large chunk of the market for Southern California vacation homes.

For homes below $400,000, mountain areas such as Lake Arrowhead, Crestline and Big Bear Lake offer first-time buyers and families considerably more for their money in terms of square footage and neighborhood amenities than markets “down the hill,” where prices are rising even more rapidly.

Since 2000, the median price of a home in Lake Arrowhead has increased 34.5% to $283,000, according to DataQuick Information Systems. In San Bernardino County as a whole, median prices have jumped 43% to $219,000. (The high percentage of vacation homes in Lake Arrowhead and the steep price of houses around the lake skew prices higher.)

About $300,000 can buy a three-bedroom house with property in a nice neighborhood on the mountain, according to Realtor Matt Wegner of Coldwell Banker Rim of the World. In much of San Bernardino and nearly all of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, the same home in an equivalent neighborhood would be worth $400,000 or more.

If families can work around the relative dearth of white-collar jobs on the mountain and don’t mind traveling 45 minutes to get to a department store, getting more house for the money makes sense.

That’s the dilemma faced by Greg and Darcy Whitney, who have listed their four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom Lake Arrowhead house for $433,000. Only 5 years old, the handsome hillside home has a desirable flat yard and a view of the lake below.

But the Whitneys both work in Fontana, and they plan to move with their two small children to the Claremont area to be closer to their jobs. Greg Whitney said he’s resigned to downsizing, perhaps substantially, from the about 2,500 square feet of living space the family now enjoys in order to buy in a good neighborhood.

“It’s a completely different market,” he said.

And although the Lake Arrowhead housing market is healthy, the loss of pines stings, especially for those who must foot the bill. Some of the trees are being cut and hauled away by Southern California Edison, which is requiring homeowners to remove dead trees around power lines.

Parts of the forest are going through a relatively rapid transformation as a result of bark beetle damage, according to Glenn Barley, a unit forester with the California Department of Forestry fire protection division. In some areas, those changes are fairly dramatic.

Consequently, the issue of tree removal is one that comes up in just about every real estate transaction on the mountain these days. It’s open to negotiation, but ultimately the responsibility of ridding a property of problem trees rests with the seller.

Depending on the size of a tree and the steepness and accessibility of the slope it grows on, cutting and removal cost from a few hundred dollars to, in the most extreme cases, more than $50,000.

Amid all this, there is a growing conviction that decades of unfettered growth in an area prone to drought are at the root of the changes now taking place.

Joe Conroy, who bought his home in Lake Arrowhead more than 20 years ago, recalled that for most of that time the mantra on the mountain was “let it grow.” But the results of that attitude can be seen clearly from Conroy’s west-facing deck in the hills north of the lake.

Dozens of homes that previously were seen only at night, as twinkling lights, are now plainly visible. Meanwhile, brittle, copper-colored pines, the telltale sign of the bark beetle, are everywhere.

“It’s been devastating, there’s no question about it,” Conroy said. “It looks completely different now.”

Conroy was among the first to heed foresters’ warnings, cutting down a total of 27 trees on his property, including a couple of pines that were 80 feet tall. The work cost him $9,700.

Despite what was then four years of drought and escalating infestation, the first concerted government response to the bark beetle damage came just last spring when the state Public Utilities Commission authorized Southern California Edison to begin removing dead and dying trees around its power lines.

Those who removed trees around power lines after April 3, 2003, can apply for a reimbursement from the utility. Reimbursements, based on Edison estimates, are generally a bit less than the public pays, so most people don’t recover all their money.

Edison spokesman Steve Conroy -- no relation to Joe -- said the company would spend up to $150 million in state money this year alone to cut trees. Edison has received about 4,500 reimbursement requests from property owners so far and has paid out about $14.5 million.

But Joe Conroy cut his trees in January last year, before Edison was authorized by the state to begin cutting. He’s miffed that there’s a chance he’ll never get any of his money back, while others who waited longer to cut stricken trees will be reimbursed.

“It’s like you’re getting punished for doing the right thing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the federal government in May approved $70 million to remove dead and dying trees in the San Bernardino Mountains as part of a $120-million Southern California package to clear timber that could fuel another firestorm. A coalition called the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce has been established to coordinate the work.

Forest officials estimate there are more than 12 million dead and dying trees in the San Bernardino Mountains. Healthy trees fight off bark beetles with their sap, but the same is not true for drought-stricken trees, whose root systems are in a desperate competition for nutrients.

Even with an estimated 100 companies on the job, fewer than 1 million trees have been cut and hauled away so far.

Given that picture, it’s clear the money released so far is a drop in the bucket for the amount of thinning that must take place. And none of the federal money is earmarked to pay back residents, some of whom are now being told they must cut their stricken trees or potentially have the county do it and send them the bill. Local legislators are seeking possible reimbursement for residents.

Still, Conroy is among those who have discovered a new appreciation for what it means to live in a mountain wilderness area. That includes a renewed vigor for clearing dead trees and brush, limiting replanting and replacing wood-shingle roofs with safer composite materials.

“One of the good things to come out of this is that folks’ attention is being drawn to forest health,” forester Barley said. “In most areas around the mountain, there are in excess of 500 trees per acre. A healthy forest would have 100 trees per acre.”

Despite the environmental issues, Realtor Wegner said area residents have been pleasantly surprised by what’s been happening on the mountain.

Disappearing pines have meant more sunlight for thriving sequoias, cedars and oaks. And scores of homes that never had views of the lake suddenly do. Those homes are now more valuable as a result.

“After the fire, everyone was disappointed and wondering what was going to happen,” Wegner said. “I thought, ‘Values will go down,’ but the opposite happened. Who would have thunk it?”

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Fire safety, straight from the source

Here’s where to get information about tree cutting and fire prevention in the San Bernardino Mountains:

* Southern California Edison, (800) 640-3852, www.sce.com/barkbeetle

* California Department of Forestry, (909) 881-6900, www.fire.ca.gov

* San Bernardino County Fire Department, (909) 355-8800, www.sbcfire.org

* Mountain Rim Fire Safe Council, (909) 337-6844, www.mtnrimfsc.org

* Mountain Area Safety Taskforce, www.calmast.org

-- Darrell Satzman

Darrell Satzman, a Los Angeles-based freelance writer, can be reached at satzman@earthlink.net.