Editor’s note: Residents on Marguerita between 17th and 22nd Streets, 18th
Street north of Washington, and 22nd Street north of Montana have devoted
much of the last month attempting to ensure that if the City replaces the
palm trees on their streets for whatever reason, it replaces them with three
specific species of palms. But as one resident reports in an email to her
neighbors. the City doesn’t seem to be listening.

Here’s the latest chapter in the saga of the palm trees.

Last night, at a meeting of the city’s Urban Forest Master Plan Task Force,
Caryn Marshall and I proposed the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis),
the edible date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), and the Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia robusta) as the best replacements for the palms in our neighborhood. These were the recommendations that our group developed
with the help of Don Hodel, horticulture advisor for the University of
California system and author of “Exceptional Trees of Los Angeles
(California Arboretum Foundation).

The task force had originally planned to finalize species selections this
month. In response, however, to widespread concerns about inadequate notification of residents and lack of transparency, the task force announced
a change in its schedule.

It now plans to hold two sessions for public input in September, and finalize
its species selections afterwards.

The public input sessions are scheduled for September 7 and September 14. Please mark those dates on your calendars and plan on coming to one or both sessions.

We recognize that everyone has already put considerable time and effort into
this issue, ever since we learned by accident last month that the city’s draft
urban forest master plan had designated sycamores and Torrey pines as replacements for the palms on 18th Street north of Washington, 21st Street
north of Montana, and Marguerita Ave. between 17th Street and 22nd Street.

We have submitted more than 300 signatures on petitions, turned out 50 people at a public tree workshop, and testified en masse before the City Council. We have written countless letters, consulted with a leading arborist, and made recommendations for replacement palms: Species that are identical to those listed in the city’s master plan as palm replacements for the neighborhood immediately west of us.

And yet, after all of our efforts, the city’s master plan (available on its website
at www.santamonicatrees.com) still lists sycamores and Torrey pines as replacements for the palms on our streets. And last night, when the city’s community forester gave his official report about public reaction to the draft master plan, he failed to mention our petitions, our testimony and our activism.

So it appears that we will have no choice but to turn out again in September. Please, everyone, enjoy the rest of your summer and come back energized and ready to turn up the heat.

This is about more than just palm trees.

Patricia Bauer