BIOLOGISTS TO PRESERVE CAMPUS TREES DURING CONSTRUCTION AT VALLEY COLLEGE.

Byline: - Lisa M. Sodders

One tree emits a foul odor and produces hard, round seeds that can be dangerous to pedestrians when they fall. Another has fuzzy bark, while some got their start - as seeds - in London's Kew Gardens.

The trees are among 117 different species at 50-year-old Los Angeles Valley College that are the focus of an intense preservation effort. Biology professors are scrambling to compile a database of rare and old trees to ensure they're not harmed during construction of the first new buildings on campus in years.

``It's part of the web of life,'' said Norton F. Siegel, the biology department's former head technician, who is helping to compile the database before construction starts.

``It's so much better to look at (live trees) here than to see it on TV or in a book.''

The biology department is also updating a campus walking tour and plans new signs to provide better information on the trees, which date back to the college's founding. Biology professors hope to present their final report to the campus architect.

A new library and a new media arts building are planned, and the gymnasium will be remodeled in the $165 million campus improvement project scheduled to start in the fall. Providing better access for disabled students is among goals for the gym remodeling.

Funds will come from bonds to be sold under Proposition A, the six-year $1.2 billion measure that city voters approved last year to upgrade the nine campuses in the Los Angeles Community College District.

Many of the trees on Valley College's sprawling 105-acre campus have stories behind them. The oak trees near the life-sciences building were grown from seeds taken from the Kew Gardens in London by David G. Dixon, a former Valley College professor, Siegel said.

And the campus' Dawn Redwood with its unusually fuzzy, shaggy bark sometimes fools observers into thinking it's dead when it really isn't, Siegel said. The deciduous redwood also was a gift from Dixon.

To Karen Roy, biology department chairwoman, the trees are more than just pretty landscaping. They're living textbooks that show solutions to evolutionary problems.

The college's female Ginkgo biloba trees produce an odor caused by butyric acid that forms when the fruit rots. Roy surmises the smell prevented predators from eating the fruit's seed.

``It's now outlived any predator,'' she said of the tree species, one of the oldest on Earth, that she calls a living fossil.

But the Ginkgo bilobas also have posed a nuisance for campus gardeners, who removed two last year because their hard, round seeds could cause pedestrians to slip and fall. Their rotting odor didn't help matters, either.

But a row of the trees still stands on the east side of campus - on Ethel Avenue. Three of them are females.

And that's fine, said Jack Epling, the college's head gardener.

``Fortunately, that's a very open area, and people are a lot less likely to complain about the odor,'' he said.

Right now the Ginkgo bilobas' fruit is pale green and odorless, but in the fall, there will be no mistaking the smell.

Roy can hardly wait.

``They're these tall, beautiful trees, and when the leaves do fall, they turn this wonderful shade of yellow-gold,'' she said. ``I'd plant a forest of them if I had the space.''

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Photo:

Norton F. Siegel and Karen Roy, biology department chairwoman, examine a Valley College tree she calls a living fossil.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer