A chainsaw runs through it
BLAME IT ON THE SQUIRRELS. They scamper through the yard with cheekfuls of acorns and can’t help but drop a few. Or maybe it’s the birds. They pluck tasty-looking nuts from magnificent Southern California black walnut trees in the hills, then drop them at your house when they figure out the shells are too tough to crack. Then the rains come, and the next thing you know, you’ve got a grove of oak and walnut saplings growing by the driveway.
The squirrels, the birds, the rains. And now the Los Angeles City Council.
The council has just toughened the city’s native tree ordinance and now requires residents on a lot of any size -- not just big lots -- to apply for a permit before removing sycamore, bay, oak or walnut trees with a trunk diameter of four inches or more. (The previous minimum was eight inches.)
That would be more than weekend weeding but could easily come under the heading of yard cleaning. Cut the trees without a permit and you could be fined $1,000, or even face six months in jail. Even with a permit, you’ll have to plant two trees for each one you cut down.
Council President Eric Garcetti had the right idea with his new ordinance, up to a point. Native trees protect the city’s hillsides from erosion and safeguard our quality of life, providing a welcome touch of nature in a sprawling city of asphalt and concrete. Parts of the city are a virtual forest, where trees play a vital role in preserving an ecological balance. There are places in Los Angeles where we need more trees, and the few remaining open spaces that have somehow survived without development shouldn’t have their trees bulldozed, simply to sit vacant and dusty.
And it’s nice to be reminded that our city’s flora consists of more than just one long row after another of palm trees lining the streets. We have real, honest-to-goodness native woodlands interspersed among our houses, yards, apartments and parks. Western sycamores are Southern California icons and define the historic Arroyo Seco. Black walnuts are an unexpected surprise to newcomers in the Hollywood Hills. California bays are especially lush in the ravines and hillsides near the coast. All three now join oaks as protected in Los Angeles.
But the new law, on its face, applies to everyone, on any lot, and that includes backyards where a tree may have sprung up from an acorn under a shrub or a hedge. Get out your tape measure. More than four inches? Better get yourself down to City Hall and apply for a permit.
Will a city tree patrol haul you into arboreal court if it catches you taking a saw to a scrub oak that got out of hand? Of course not. That would be unreasonable. And when have you ever known City Hall to be unreasonable?
