CITY TREES ILLEGALLY TRIMMED OFFICIALS SEEK CULPRITS BEHIND POTENTIAL HARM.Byline: Orith Goldberg Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - One thing you don't mess with mess with Verb Informal, chiefly US to interfere in, or become involved with, a dangerous person, thing, or situation: he had started messing with drugs in Santa Clarita, designated a Tree City U.S.A., is the trees. So when city officials found Thursday that at least 49 trees on the public right-of-way had been trimmed well beyond arborists' standards and without permission, they began demanding answers. By late afternoon they hadn't found who had hired Diversified American Industries American Industries is a large real estate development company based in Chihuahua, Mexico. They also have offices in Monterrey, Cd. Juarez, and El Paso. It provides various industrial real estate services, including built-to-suit, sale-lease-back, shared leases programs, and , a Los Angeles-based tree trimming company. ``The trees add a lot of beauty out here . . . and then we have a company destroying what the community wants,'' city arborist Omar Davis said. Sheriff's deputies were notified after city staffers found that sycamores, pines, willows and robinia trees along Soledad Canyon Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon / valley located in Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita. Soledad Canyon contains the localities of Vincent, Acton, Ravenna, and Agua Dulce. Road, San Fernando Road San Fernando Road is a major street in the city and county of Los Angeles. It starts off in Castaic as The Old Road, passing through Santa Clarita and the Newhall Pass, where upon its intersection with Sierra Highway near the junction of the Golden State (I-5) and the and Camp Plenty road had been improperly trimmed, and that no permits had been granted. Too much foliage was taken from the trees and that could cause irreparable damage, Davis said. ``We are concerned about the health of these trees,'' he said. ``With the amount of foliage taken out, the bark can become sunburned sun·burn n. Inflammation or blistering of the skin caused by overexposure to direct sunlight. tr. & intr.v. sun·burned or sun·burnt , sun·burn·ing, sun·burns To affect or be affected with sunburn. and insects could attack the trees and that could lead to their decline and death.'' About 29 city trees were trimmed on Soledad Canyon Road, near Golden Oak Road. An additional 20 city-owned trees along San Fernando Road near Circle J Ranch were trimmed. Davis said it was the wrong time of the year to prune pine trees, a task normally done in cooler weather. ``They took out foliage way above the industry standard,'' Davis said. Davis said almost all of the bark was exposed on the sycamore trees, which had 80 percent of their foliage removed. The industry standard is about 15 percent to 20 percent, he said. ``They destroyed some nice specimens of city property there,'' Davis said. |
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