Tree Firm Is Accused of Negligence
A company hired to remove dead and diseased trees from local mountains was dropped Tuesday by San Bernardino County supervisors after complaints that it operated for seven months without loggers’ insurance, chopped down the wrong trees and spoiled the landscape.
Supervisors, citing the recommendation of a county panel, concluded that A.J. Acosta Inc., based in Big Bear Lake, was an irresponsible contractor and forbade it to submit tree-removal bids for two years.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Aug. 12, 2005 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday August 12, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 79 words Type of Material: Correction
Tree removal -- An article in Wednesday’s California section said that a tree-removal company, A.J. Acosta Inc., was accused of allowing leaking hydraulic fluid to enter a stream while removing dead and diseased trees in San Bernardino County. Officials said the company allowed the fluid to leak onto an upstream property. The article also said the firm was awarded seven contracts last year. It was awarded two contracts last year and was recently the low bidder on five more.
The company was among 27 hired by the county to remove trees from mountain areas burned in the 2003 wildfires.
Officials say the company allowed leaking hydraulic fluid to flow into a stream, chopped down some trees on 10 acres of U.S. Forest Service land, felled healthy trees, scattered branches on private property and destroyed a building foundation tagged as a cultural resource site.
The county panel’s report also said workers left behind trees or large limbs that teetered precariously.
Andy Acosta, who owns the company, denied the accusations at Tuesday’s board meeting, saying that although “there are some mistakes, it wasn’t our [company’s] mistake.”
A.J. Acosta Inc. and the other firms were awarded contracts to cut down trees that bark beetles had attacked, allowing rot to become established.
Officials estimate that about 900,000 dead trees, which pose a serious fire hazard, remain on private land in the San Bernardino Mountains.
In 2004 the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service granted the county $70 million to remove them.
“It was a real gift for everyone in the mountains,” said Theodore Golondzinier, assistant director of operations for the county’s Department of Public Works.
The county last year awarded Acosta seven contracts, including two that are current, worth $258,600.
His company has felled most of the 3,000 trees for which it was responsible, and the county has paid it $207,000.
Acosta was also the lowest bidder on five additional contracts, totaling nearly $268,000, to remove about 1,800 trees. The county will allow other companies to apply for those contracts.
Acosta said he believed his dismissal had nothing to do with his work, and that he was being targeted for other reasons, including his ethnicity.
“I know that my civil rights have been violated,” he said.
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