A Tree Falls on Earlham

David Stafford, a graduate student in Santa Barbara, was visiting his parents on Christmas day when a towering eucalyptus tree at the corner of Earlham and Mt. Holyoke (left), was knocked down in the high winds and rain at 2:30 p.m., pulling up the grassy area of the parkway and a bit of the sidewalk. The tree narrowly missed Stafford’s parked car, and did not cause any damage. A city crew came out at about 3 a.m. and cut off the edge of the tree so that one car at a time could get by. Two days later, a chainsaw crew came out and cut the tree into little pieces. Then the chipper crew came Monday to discard the wood. As of Tuesday, residents were still waiting for crews to take away the stump and repair the sidewalk. On Tuesday morning, the stump of the tree and several logs were still in the street, surrounded by orange-and-white barriers and some yellow police tape. A platform used as a tree fort, that Stafford and other neighborhood children had played in over a decade ago, was lying next to the stump. Photo: David Stafford