Edhat Reader
The City of Santa Barbara is beginning to remove some of the Italian Stone Pine trees on E. Anapamu Street in Santa Barbara.
Last month the city stated its Urban Forestry staff will remove five Italian stone pines on East Anapamu Street after a comprehensive assessment identified the aging trees as a threat to public safety.
Many of the remaining trees will receive canopy pruning to reduce the risk of limb failure once neighboring trees are removed.
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The City Council designated this stand of trees a City Historic Landmark in 1997. One would reasonably think that it would mean that status would require special care and at least cooperation between the Historic Landmarks Commission and what has increasingly been referred to as the Parks and Wrecks department. Over the years, downed trees have not been replaced as the designation requires. And the lack of commitment to the proper maintenance of the trees is pretty obvious in many ways, not the least of which is how one of the trees pictured has been allowed to nearly engulf the historic hitching post. When I spoke with the young man charged with grinding the roots, he had no idea what it was or how long it had been there. Even now a total disrespect for the historic importance of that area.
There’s a huge Stone pine on the 1800 block of Overlook that has died, but no one seems to be able to get the city to move it. For years neighbors have complained about the massive branches and debris they leave, as they lean into the power lines on the street. Maybe these trees are just not meant for Santa Barbarans if they residents and city won’t maintain them.
You are right, tiredmom — and the Santa Barbara residents who do not live under these stone pines are going to have a hard time understanding all the problems that they cause, Even if, for the sake of their beauty and their historical status, you are willing to put up with their propensity to:
• drip sap onto our parked cars,
• disperse allergenic pollen every spring,
• drop profuse piles of pine needles that acidify the soil below, discouraging other plant growth (unless we diligently rake up the needles daily);
you might begin to balk at the financial cost that Anapamu’s stone pines are imposing on the City (meaning US!).
These trees, gorgeous though they be, are not appropriate street trees, because of their shallow root systems: As they mature, they begin buckling the adjoining street macadam and the adjoining sidewalks. All of us who have lived under these trees for any length of time have witnessed how often the city workers must come out to cut off the protruding roots, and to repair the damaged pavement. However, the trouble does not end there; because, once their roots are cut, the trees begin to die and fall over; and the City workers must come out again to remove the dying trees.
Beyond even those problems, I am told that a destructive parasite — one that would require regular application of toxic pesticides to eliminate — has infested these trees. (I have witnessed how much the mealy bugs love them!)
The time has come to start replacing Anapamu’s stone pines (as they, inevitably, succumb) with a more appropriate, deep-rooted, drought-resistant, and pest-resistant species. I proposed to the City Arborist and to the Street Tree Advisory Committee my preference for Siberian elm trees or for Jacarandas. If you know of other appropriate species that you would like to see lining Anapamu street, I encourage you to contact the City Arborist, Nathan Slack: NSlack@santabarbaraCA.gov.