If A 400-Year-Old Oak Tree Falls In The Valley... Why The Ancient Wood Collapsed In Canoga Park

Photo by Aidras via Flickr

Shaking awake the neighborhood, a huge, centuries-old oak tree toppled in Canoga Park "barely missing the home that sat under its canopy," according to the Daily News. Estimated to be between 300 and 400 years old, the massive wood crashed to earth at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday at Chase Place and Ponce Street covering both the front and side yard of the house.

Said homeowner Frances Arrieta, "It was always just there, a beautiful old tree." Arrieta called LAFD, LAFD called a city maintenance crew, and the city maintenance crew said you're on your own, in so many words. The tree grew on private property so it's the family's responsibility to remove it.

Speaking to the ancient oak's demise, James Dean (really that's his name), oak tree expert and founder of the James Dean Group in Thousand Oaks, said tree essentially became "water-logged."

"We're in that time of the year when it's pumping massive volumes of water," said Dean, who helped draft Los Angeles' oak tree preservation ordinance in the 1980s. "An old tree like that will have different stress points and (the water's weight) just causes a massive failure. "It's kind of a normal phenomenon that we are sad to see," he said.

Los Angeles Urban Forestry Division assistant chief forester Ron Lorenzen could see an image of the "beautiful tree" on Google Earth taken before it fell. The city does not have a count of its oak trees and does not know how many of the "old giants" are left, he noted, saying "There has been a large decline, anecdotally." He remarked that there are "still a lot of Valley oaks out there that are very old," noting, however, that there are "not many places for young oak trees to take root and grow."

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By Lisa Brenner in News on July 2, 2011 2:30 PM

Comments [rss]

yotimbo

I had a very large stone pine in my yard. It fell diagonally across the yard, across my driveway and across the street. LAFD came and chopped off and removed the portion that was in the street, but the remainder on my property was my problem. It's sad to lose a big tree like this oak.

PicoPhreako69

Farewell, big green buddy.... 0:>\=

Ricky Grubb

"... still a lot of Valley oaks out there that are very old," noting, however, that there are "not many places for young oak trees to take root and grow." Los Angeles Urban Forestry Division assistant chief forester Ron Lorenzen.

Oh if only our fair City's expert urban foresters would please grow and plant, propagate and sprout, LOCAL trees! City Trees, descended from acorns and seed they gather from neadby local, wild and select heritage native trees! Oh Please city, put (taxpayer funded) tree nurserys and city foresters for native plant genetic diversity! Collect seed of local native trees, grow and plant them only, to reform the wild populations of native trees and plants! Propagate and promote ONLY local wild native plant seeds, best when personally gathered by the gardener! Local seed sources are the best sources! Get wild seed for native; grasses shrubs vines, Sycamores, Lemonadeberry Sumacs, Wild cherries, lilacs, currants, mahogany, Bigcone and Foothill Pine Trees, collect local wild ferns lichens and plants, and use those local native trees et.al. in every city landscape from here on out, and eventually replace all of our city owned trees with local native trees, (only replacing each of those trees that fall ill, die or topple, so we can gradually replace them, and cheaply). Make a point, go native city foresters! Do that, and I for one will be eternally grateful, and all city departments might learn to appreciate and promote our excellent local native trees a little to boot!

Image below is a Southern California Black Walnut.
True "Native" 4ft "Black Walnut" growing wild right beside clear flowing stream's mid-ravine reach, over the last Verdugos of Tujunga California, City of Los Angeles, just north of the 210fwy, N and down, deep into a ravine from the Scenic streach of the 210 freeway's westbound lanes, somewhere between Tujunga and Sunland, no exit. Future site of 230 home development, City VTTM approved prior to housing bubble bust of 2007, project was then known as WhiteBird or "Canyon Hills". Near Verdugo Hills Golf Course. Shown here June 2011 from above.

Ricky Grubb

The "Live Oaks" demise. Genetic diversity among native plants here in Los Angeles is becoming critically depleted. Collect and grow acorns, cuttings and seeds one collects nearby, from ancient, old growth, and wild native plant species! Find your nearest wild patch of native plants, get familiar with the denziens of the wild there, collect seeds from them for your landscaping, promote and protect, nearby neighborhood wild life communities aka "Nature". Wild and Scenic, can there be any clearer endorsment?
Native residents. "Native" here meaning any volunteer individual from locally adapted wild native lineages, directly descended of the local, ancient resident lineages. A tree such as Frances Arrieta's Live Oak the "..beautiful old tree." on her land, being 400 years in place is presumably "Native", {as opposed popular use of "native" when we talk about California "native" plants}. Wild Natives, think life is hard for an LA resident? Ancient schmancient, Nature lives or dies at our pleasure and whim, its castoff, and where people build, wildlife dies. 100% Grubbed and graded, site is always cleared of natures species, and at our peril. It makes no sense to plant non-natives, growing nearby natives, or even better the on-site natives, now that makes sense!

Circe Poo

So why is native important?

Will Campbell

If I'm not fulla shnit, I believe "encino" is Spanish for "oak," and just south of Ventura at Louise in that community was home to an estimated 1,000-year-old oak tree that fell in the latter half of the 1990s.