A few Monarch butterflies fluttering in the dappled sunlit eucalyptus grove in Rustic Canyon Park last week seemed curious about the work that was going on in the historic 3.5-acre grove. Workers were finally beginning to implement a landscape and reforestation plan that has been in the planning and permit stages for the last two years. The original eucalyptus trees were planted in Rustic Canyon by Abbot Kinney as part of the first U.S. Forestry Station in 1887. The station was set up to study and test trees from other countries as to their usefulness and adaptability to the soil and climate of California. Nursery stock was produced and made available for test plantings and the grounds themselves were planned as an arboretum and public attraction. Rows of the original trees remain, marking the old boundaries despite the threat of subdivision and years of neglect. Although the grove was designated as a California Historical Landmark in 1971, efforts to upgrade the irrigation and infill where trees have been lost have been slow to materialize. Now the dream of longtime Rustic Canyon advocate Betty Lou Young, who died in 2010, is becoming reality. Her vision, personal guardianship and unceasing advocacy for the grove proved to be infectious. Local landscape designer Dave Card developed a plan with three goals in mind: to rehabilitate the Forestry Station, to preserve and enhance the existing uses of the site and to create educational and recreational programs focusing on the history, purpose and ecology of the grove. With approvals from the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, the Department of Recreation and Parks and money provided by grants and gifts, work finally began last week. A decomposed granite path was created on Latimer Road along the perimeter of the grove. Sixty granite boulders were placed around the area, including three arranged in a semicircle for a memorial seating area. Holes were drilled for the new trees and shrubs and a new irrigation system will be installed by the City of Los Angeles. Plant materials will include 25 new eucalyptus trees and a variety of Australian exotics, including the red horse chestnut and Queensland Kauri, plus acacias and grasses. Support for the project has been provided by a grant from the Young family, the Junior Women’s Club and parents of the Rustic Canyon co-op nursery school. A gift from the friends of Scott Gerwehr, who was killed on his 40th birthday in a traffic accident on Sunset, will underwrite 40 trees and a memorial seating area. Additional amenities will include a stone arbor, a tree map that will identity the trees in the grove and a Latimer arbor, which will replicate Harold Latimer’s entry gate, which was located on the site that ultimately became Latimer Road. Phase one’the boulders, the DG path and the vertical drilling’is complete. Phase two’the installation of the irrigation’will be announced by the city.
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