For the past 18 months, I have been working along with local environmental groups and neighborhood residents to improve the massive County of Orange project to replace the 1200 ft long Laguna Creek Channel along the Frontage Road. As originally submitted in May, 2021, the project proposed the removal of all seven mature pine and sycamore trees in the planted parkway adjacent to Laguna Canyon Road. There were no replacement trees proposed. I was able to meet with County and City staff at the site on two occasions to discuss concerns. We also discussed the idea of boxing and re-planting the existing historic tree aloe in the mini-park. The meetings seemed promising, and I reported to the neighbors and other groups that there would be a good-faith effort to evaluate each of the seven existing trees with the goal of preservation. There would have to be careful pruning of tree roots to facilitate the channel replacement, but with proper care, it could have been possible that at least some of the trees may have survived if given a chance. Now we will never know.
On Sept. 14, without warning to the neighborhood or others involved, the County began removing all seven existing trees without discretion. To show respect to the neighborhood, the local residents could at least have been given the opportunity to salvage some of the succulents in their mini-park in the days before the bulldozers arrived. That didn’t happen either.
Hopefully, the community’s plea to plant replacement native trees in the project [endorsed by the City Council] will not fall on similar deaf ears.
Bob Borthwick, Laguna Beach
