Trees, Please
I liked Editor-in-Chief John Harlow’s “Special Investigation” in the Nov. 16 edition of the Palisadian-Post that asks “Where Did Our Trees Go?” and takes up the troubling matter of the increasing “arboricide” here in the Palisades. And it starts out by mentioning Palisades Beautiful’s publication three decades ago of “Trees of Pacific Palisades,” which needs major revising and new illustrations if ever republished.
Starting in 1974, over the years Palisades Beautiful vigorously publicized, secured signed homeowners’ tree-planting permits and then handled the planting of trees themselves in neighborhood parkways. It was often involved, too, in tree plantings elsewhere in public places, as well as starting the native garden in Temescal Canyon Park.
Increasingly in recent years, the city of Los Angeles has taken over providing trees and then planting them, with Million Trees LA and now CityPlants. The latter has help from LADWP, various community partners and the LA Conservation Corps.
Palisades Beautiful, a nonprofit community organization, plans to assist CityPlants in the future by continuing to promote tree planting by publicizing locally the crucial need for trees within the Palisades.
These efforts will include not only providing information about the CityPlants program and passing out its permission-to-plant slips, but also encouraging residents and developers to care for and preserve the community’s existing trees when these efforts are needed.
Palisades Beautiful, however, now has only a few active board directors and associates and fast-declining assets. We need many more advocates and new fundraising efforts. PB is not a “membership” organization with annual dues-paying members, though it has the IRS-conferred 501(c)(3) status. Its future existence will depend entirely strong personal efforts made by individual activists allied with it, tax-exempt donations of any amount and successful grant applications.
We therefore welcome future involvements by other people who are devoted to trees, whether or not they are experts in arboriculture. We hold monthly meetings in the Palisades Branch Library’s Community Room—usually on the third Friday of every month—at 2 p.m., with the next meeting on Dec. 15. The public is always welcome. The organization has other educational, environment-improving and sustainability benefiting interests and programs as well.
For more information about Palisades Beautiful, visit palisadesbeautiful.org, contact info@palisadesbeautiful.org or call 310-459-0190.
Barbara Marinacci
Secretary-Treasurer
Palisades Beautiful
Palm Concerns
As a resident of the Via Bluffs, I’ve been looking into whether the mile-long alley of iconic palm trees on Swarthmore Avenue might obtain extra protection in light of recent reports of diseases devastating LA’s palms.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
Old photos unearthed by historian Randy Young show that the trees (alternating “Canary Island Date” and “Mexican Fan” palms) are about 90 years old—planted in, roughly, 1928-1930.
In some cases, involving similar very old palms located in parks (e.g., Echo Park), the city has planted young replacements next to old dying palms, but city policy is not to replace any street or parkway palms, “iconic” or not—since most experts believe they are messy, dirty, thirsty, don’t provide shade and shouldn’t have been introduced in LA in the first place.
Officials have told me that fan palms are more disease-resistant, but date palms are especially prone to fungus and pest infestation. Fungal disease typically takes five years to run its course and symptoms (crown fronds turn yellow) don’t appear until it’s too late. There are no known cures and temporary measures such as fungicide injections are very costly and ultimately ineffective.
Nonetheless, one expert explained that not all palms in LA will die out; as he put it, “like the Black Plague.”
Roughly one-third will die but two-thirds will likely live.
We don’t know yet whether the Swarthmore palms are afflicted with disease, but if they are, realistically, nothing much can be done.
I’ve also been assured that obtaining official “Historic Monument” status (as was previously obtained for Sycamore trees on Bienveneda and the Rustic Canyon Eucalyptus Grove) will not be a panacea.
For now, let’s appreciate the Swarthmore “palm alley” and hope that all our trees will remain healthy for years to come.
Chris Spitz
Haunted
Thank you so much for making my haunted house a feature in the newspaper. It was really awesome to be on the front page! Now even more people know why I do it. I think it will help me get even more money for St. Jude next year. Thank you again.
Oliver Langan
Giving Thanks
As I write this Thanksgiving greeting for the wonderful community, of which I am so proud to be a part, I am also aware that Nov. 19, 2017, was World Toilet Day.
On this day, I am prompted to think back on so many Thanksgivings I’ve spent in the States, truly thankful for the good fortune that has blessed my life. Not that there haven’t been real challenges or trying moments that have made me doubt the meaning of life or rethink the core of what makes a person, but on balance, I have always—like many of you—had much to be grateful for.
World Toilet Day is designed to save lives—4.5 billion of the world’s seven billion people live without a household toilet.
The impact is felt in child survival rates, incidents of female assault at their most vulnerable moments, as well as serious health and wellness consequences that have no gender or age barriers.
Here at home, the city of LA has committed to an initiative that would make bathrooms/washrooms available to its most vulnerable populations, including those experiencing homelessness this holiday season.
We all have more in common than we have in conflict. Let us think about those common bonds that bind us as we look ahead to a season of thanks and a new year replete with blessings.
Today, nearing the end of four decades in my life as a woman who has traversed the world to get to this particular spot on this corner of the globe, I look back at some of the societies I’ve experienced and left behind.
I can’t help but to have a sense that giving back has to be a touchstone of my life as I look ahead—particularly in my case, to women.
I hope the same for all of you—to be able to put aside bygones and look ahead to an ever-stronger community to which you can give back.
A community built on the spirit of collaboration, forged from a rich history and united by a desire to preserve what is truly wonderful about Pacific Palisades.
It’s not old fissures or new conflicts.
It’s not mundane disputes of daily life or grudges of times passed.
It’s a recurring instinct to come together, confer about community issues and resolve to go forward stronger.
Maryam Zar
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