ROT, DEVELOPMENT CLAIM HISTORIC OAK TREE.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

A little piece of Old Newhall disappeared Wednesday, much to the disappointment of area residents who watched as the old heritage valley oak at Lyons and Newhall avenues slowly was sawed down.

Those who lived in the Santa Clarita Valley when it was a country town remember the oak, with its huge canopy, as a landmark.

People would pass it as they traveled down the dirt, two-lane Lyons Avenue that led to Mentryville, said Cynthia Neal-Harris with the Santa Clarita Valley Oaks Conservancy, who has lived in the area since 1958.

``That's like a marker tree. It was used to separate property lines,'' Neal-Harris said. ``I can't go out there and look. It would make me too sad.''

The tree, estimated to be anywhere from 300 to 600 years old, was cut down because its insides had rotted to the point that it was too dangerous to leave in the Jack in the Box parking lot, said Mark Pedrick, a city code enforcement officer.

That didn't matter to some passers-by, including one who threatened to take his own power saw to the crew members, Pedrick said.

No one will ever know just how old the tree was. The city had planned, with the help of the College of the Canyons biology department, to count the rings of the tree, but it was so rotted that the evidence practically crumbled away, Pedrick said.

``It was so rotted you couldn't tell. The crew probably could have taken chunks out with the hands,'' Pedrick said. ``Jack in the Box was even going to have a contest where people could guess how old the tree was. The winner would get a free lunch or something.''

The city issued a permit for the restaurant to cut the tree down after an initial request to take down a cracked branch, Pedrick said. The restaurant manager was afraid it would break off and fall on a car, he said.

But after the city's oak tree consultant, Kay Carlson, inspected the oak, it was clear that the tree was suffering from rot all over, Pedrick said.

``She said it was probably best to take it down,'' Pedrick said. ``Especially if we had another big storm like we did with El Nino. It could cause some serious problems.''

The rot was likely caused by a variety of problems. But more than anything else, the oak probably suffered from the development around it, Pedrick said.

``It was probably too stressed out from the development over the years,'' Pedrick said. ``There's the building right next to it, and the asphalt that's been compacted on its roots. It is unfortunate. But in the interest of safety, it had to come down.''

Neal-Harris and others, though, said stress on the tree could have been limited from the start if Jack in the Box had been required to take some steps to protect it.

``It shows what happens to a perfectly healthy tree that gets built around,'' Neal-Harris said. ``They could have put a patio around it. They could have made it a gorgeous centerpiece.''

And local environmentalist Lynne Plambeck said a special asphalt design could have been laid so that the tree's roots could get air and water.

``Some paving has a criss-cross pattern with holes,'' Plambeck said. ``Trees need access to water, but they also need access to the air. Someone should have required that and then we'd still have that tree.''

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PHOTO (Color) Wood from a rotting oak tree estimated to be several hundred years old is removed from a restaurant parking lot Wednesday.

David R. Crane/Daily News