Park Board Taps Water for Stressed Trees

By ERIKA MARTIN | Reporter

Relief is on hand for local trees. The Pacific Palisades Park Advisory Board (PP-PAB) met last Wednesday, July 20, to discuss the epidemic of trees dying due to drought stress and diseases.

The last five years have been the driest recorded in California history, prompting the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to tightly restrict water use.

The lack of nutrition had made trees more susceptible to diseases and infestations such as golden spotted ore, pittosporum blight and bark beetles.

In response, PP-PAB successfully advocated for increased watering in the picnic grove, along with aeration and fertilizers to ensure that the trees in those areas will get the best possible attention in an effort to bring them back to the best health possible.

A number of trees have already been removed from the Palisades Recreation Center, including the landmark patch of pines in the traffic circle. Steve Dunlap, a tree specialist in Recreation and Parks’ Forestry Division, said he expects another eight to 10 will be removed by the end of the year, including the dead eucalyptus by the parking lot.

Dunlap said the department has been in crisis mode. It has put together a reforestation panel with experts from Cal Poly Pomona, UC Riverside and CSU Long Beach to determine the best method of preserving the region’s vegetation.

“Obviously the trees we have now are not working because they’re very susceptible to the diseases that are wiping a lot of them out,” Dunlap said. “So we want to find the trees that will fight off those different diseases and bugs plus live off the amount of water that we’re going to give.”

The issue is statewide, with an estimated 66 million trees dying in the Sierra Nevadas this year, but Dunlap is maintaining a positive outlook.

“We are working towards a brighter tomorrow,” he said. “We planted probably a couple thousand trees this past season and hopefully we’ll get that many in again the next year.”

The board also officially approved plans for a new bocce ball and picnic area, including an outdoor living room concept. The Recreation and Parks Board has indicated it hopes the project will serve as a template for similar initiatives across the region.

Palisadian Jimmy Dunne, who spearheaded the project, hopes it will create a new destination for locals to meet up and relax.

“When people say you want to meet on a Saturday or Sunday morning, I think the dream of this is that one of those choices will become the living room at the park,” Dunne explained.

The project will include three bocce courts and ample picnic and party space.

New, modern park furniture will be brought in and indigenous shrubs spanning the area with Mondrian-esque lines aim to create an intimate, comfortable atmosphere.

“It’s going to be so much better than what was there,” Dunne said. “It’s going to create so much activity and business.”

The board also received the results of the county’s annual Park Needs Assessment. The Rec Center was determined to need improvements and the board voiced its support of a small parcel tax to funding maintenance of the parks. The tax will replace another that is expiring in 2019.