15 Pepper Trees Removed From PVDN

The city of Rolling Hills Estates began removing California pepper trees along Palos Verdes Drive North on Wednesday and planting new trees in their place.

The trees have been at the center of a controversy in Rolling Hills Estates. While the city says the trees are diseased, opponents of tree removal point out that an arborist told members of the Parks and Activities Commission that California pepper trees generally "outgrow their illnesses." Additionally, tree removal opponents say the city is only removing the trees to make way for the Palos Verdes Drive North bike lane project—a project that has other residents upset, too.

In 2001, certified arborist Salco Landscape Services inspected the 418 pepper trees then planted along Palos Verdes Drive North, and determined that 112 of the mature trees "were potentially hazardous and should be removed due to structural deficiencies caused by age, disease, decay or vehicle damage," City Manager Doug Prichard wrote in an article called "The Truth About Trees" posted on the Rolling Hills Estates city website.

Assistant City Manager Greg Grammer told the Palos Verdes Peninsula News that 55 trees have been removed and 131 new trees planted along the street in the last decade.

In the most recent report, arborist Jeff Harvey of Arbor Expertise said 16 trees should be immediately removed by the city because of hazards they posed.

Fifteen trees were scheduled to be removed Wednesday, according to a post on the Facebook page for the PV Tree Society.

"This is in compliance with the arborist's report," according to the organization. "Any more removed, and that is for the bike lane project."

A worker involved with the removal of the trees told Patch on Wednesday that multiple people had come to watch the tree removal, and at least one woman seemed very angry.

The city has identified an additional 60-plus trees for removal based on the 2001 report, and it's a coincidence that those trees are planted where the proposed bike lanes will go, Prichard wrote in another "City Managers Corner" article. Only two of the trees scheduled for removal were planted about a decade ago and would not otherwise be removed.

"All other trees that may be in the new street alignment are scheduled for removal and replacement whether or not the Palos Verdes Drive North Bike Path Project is undertaken now or at any time in the future," he wrote.

The Rolling Hills Estates City Council is expected to discuss the bike lane project during its regular meeting on Sept. 11, Grammer told the PV News.