Editor,
How disappointing it is to see our council members decide to rush the cutting down of our beautiful ficus trees during the spring nesting season. They choose to ignore Lagunas as a bird sanctuary.
I remember seeing dead baby birds on Third Street sidewalks when the city decided to heavily prune the ficus one other springtime. The replacement trees for the ficus are small and boring and provide no shade or greenery.
Be smart and take better care of the trees with proper pruning and root control and please show some compassion for our birds and their habitat.
I must commend and thank Toni Iseman for giving the old eucalyptus that graces Forest Avenue a reprieve from the chain saw.
Without the historical eucalyptus grove on Forest Avenue it would be just another street. Yes, trees can be historical too.
Lorna Gibbs, Laguna Beach
I read the principle argument for replacing these trees is the surface roots are heaving the sidewalks on Forest and Ocean Avenue, so I had to look for myself and inspect the sidewalk damage. On Friday morning I travelled the length of both Forest and Ocean, of the remaining trees I could not find a single example where these trees are doing such damage they warrant removal. In places where red paint marks the offending tree where damage only an over-zealous contractor could see, a little root trimming and re-paving by porous brick would contour the sidewalk at far less expense than tree removal.
Our city better have a far better reason for replacing these mature trees than heaving sidewalks. These trees define the character of downtown Laguna, replacing them with a 15 gallon shrub will be a colossal blunder.