SOWING SEEDS OF RECOVERY; REHAB PATIENTS PLANT 100 TREES.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The road to recovery for several former alcoholics and drug addicts passed through the future Central Park this weekend as volunteers planted an estimated 100 giant sequoias at the Bouquet Canyon Road preserve.

Redwood Recovery, a Newbury Park-based nonprofit organization, arranged for the seedlings to be planted along a ridgeline overlooking the 137-acre city park, which is still being developed. The workers were recruited from two facilities run by the county Department of Health Services.

The idea is that the manual labor complements the counseling and therapy sessions that recovering substance abusers undergo at the Warm Springs and Acton rehabilitation centers. Warm Springs, in Lake Hughes, is a 199-bed live-in facility for men, and the Acton facility houses men and women and has 309 beds.

``They're trying to get on their feet,'' said organization president John McDonald. ``There's a real good feeling you get when you're planting trees and giving back to help the community.

``When we work with these guys, they really seem to light up. They see there's a way to enjoy life without drinking and doing drugs.''

The Castaic Lake Water Agency, which leases the land to the city of Santa Clarita for use as a regional park, allows Redwood Recovery to plant the trees. Giant sequoias are one of two California varieties of redwood, and they are adaptable to the local soil, McDonald said.

The trees can grow as tall as 325 feet and once were far more widespread. ``We're a group that's dedicated to putting redwoods back in the ground, and we want to give people in recovery work,'' he said.

The organization's plans call for eventually planting 200 trees in the park. ``We're going to try to stretch the trees along the whole ridge,'' said McDonald, adding that they will be planted to create a walkway to be named the Path of Recovery.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency will install an irrigation line so the sequoias get regular watering, and has even donated some of the trees to be planted at the park, between Centurion Way and Alamogordo Road, McDonald said.

``We have 150 (trees) that we started on our own from cuttings,'' he said. ``We've been raising them for about a year, and they're probably about a foot and a half tall.

``They're a fast-growing tree. Once established, they can grow 3 to 5 feet a year.''

The trees also are adaptable. ``They handle from extreme cold to extreme heat,'' McDonald said.

The residents of the county rehabilitation centers are referred by the court system in lieu of or sometimes in addition to jail time or as a condition of county probation or parole from state prison, said Mark Ferguson, a substance abuse counselor at Warm Springs.

The centers provide low-cost, 30- or 90-day residential programs, along with an outpatient program, for substance abusers, Ferguson said.

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4 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Giant sequoia seedlings raised from cuttings await planting Saturday at the future Central Park in Saugus.

(2--Color) Donald Morris, one of the volunteers from the Acton and Warm Springs rehab centers, clears brush before planting a sequoia seedling.

(3--Color) Paul Apodaca, left, and Curtis Solomon give a seedling its first drink after planting.

(4) Kevin Thibault carries a seedling across the ditch where the Castaic Lake Water Agency will install an irrigation line for the trees.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Special to the Daily News