Oak Trees

A La Canada Flintridge resident who is facing thousands of dollars in fines for excessively trimming oaks on his property says the punishment is unfair. The city's Planning Commission on Tuesday held Franklin Wang responsible for hiring a pruning service not approved by the city, and for over-pruning six coastal live oaks, a species protected by municipal ordinance. Wang will have to pay a $3,650 fine and deposit $1,500 so that an arborist can inspect his trees three times during the next five years.

Keith Miller got a beast of a wake-up call Thursday morning. The 71-year-old had just stepped outside his Altadena home to get the newspaper when he saw "this huge bear, looking like a Volkswagen, staring at me," Miller said. "It ran one way and I ran the other. " Before Miller made it back inside, he turned to see where the bear - which had been snacking on leftover birthday cake tossed in a garbage can - was headed. That's when he saw two cubs scamper up an oak tree in his frontyard.

An hour from the heart of Hollywood in Thousand Oaks, Greenfield Ranch has drawn dozens of film, television and commercial productions over the years. Now the bucolic ranch is playing a starring role in the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie "We Bought a Zoo. " The 450-acre property, where Roy Rogers and Gary Cooper once shot westerns, was transformed over several months into a makeshift zoo that is the centerpiece of the Cameron Crowe-directed film opening Friday. The $50-million production, adapted from a memoir of the same name by former British journalist Benjamin Mee, stars Matt Damon as a widowed father who moves his family from Los Angeles to the countryside to renovate and reopen a dilapidated zoo. The book was set at Dartmoor Zoological Park in England, but the movie takes place in the fictional Rosemoor Wildlife Park, a run-down animal sanctuary in an unnamed rural Southern California town.

A La Canada Flintridge resident who is facing thousands of dollars in fines for excessively trimming oaks on his property says the punishment is unfair. The city's Planning Commission on Tuesday held Franklin Wang responsible for hiring a pruning service not approved by the city, and for over-pruning six coastal live oaks, a species protected by municipal ordinance. Wang will have to pay a $3,650 fine and deposit $1,500 so that an arborist can inspect his trees three times during the next five years.

A hungry pest called the goldspotted oak borer is devouring enormous numbers of oak trees in San Diego County and its devastation could spread to trees throughout California, according to researchers at UC Riverside. More than 80,000 oak trees in the county have been killed in the last decade. Unless the spread of the half-inch-long beetle is stopped, it could threaten 10 million acres of red oaks in the state, researchers said. "This may be the biggest oak mortality event since the Pleistocene [epoch]

A silly food fight Re "School lunch bill approved in the House," Dec. 3 "The $4.5-billion bill was approved 264 to 157 on Thursday, with 17 Republicans joining in support. " Once again, Republicans are playing politics and forgetting about the common man or the common child. The bill will help needy children with food, but it also will help all children by teaching them about nutrition and limiting the unhealthy food for sale at the schools. As you reported, "Republicans criticized the bill as too costly and pegged it as the latest example of government overreach.

Q: We have a young oak tree that has developed cracks in its main trunk. What do you think is causing that? --M.B., Arcadia A: The bark is probably splitting as result of the death of some of the tree's main roots. They may be dying after having suffered a mechanical injury, or gopher girdling, or an oak-root fungus infection. To check for oak-root fungus, dig at the base of the tree trunk and look for white fungus growth just under the bark.

Pedestrians on the west side of Baldwin Avenue between Duarte Road and Camino Real Avenue in Arcadia who have suffered the problems associated with the nesting of birds in holly oak trees have found some relief since removal of those trees, which will be replaced by ficus trees. The holly oaks have been a problem since 1978, when the city removed 72 of them at the request of the West Arcadia Business and Professional Assn.

The County Board of Supervisors has approved the controversial Westridge Project near Santa Clarita. Debate over the project has been reduced to a choice between jobs and oak trees. This is wrong on both counts. The approval hearing concerned whether the Westridge plan would be accepted as submitted. At issue was a request to deviate from the County General Plan in order to build about 222 of 1,939 housing units and part of a golf course in a "Significant Ecological Area" or SEA. Whether the Westridge project would be built was not at issue.

The Shadetree Partnership needs volunteers to help restore California native oak woodlands in Santiago Canyon on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. Volunteers will help plant more than 100 oak trees in Santiago Canyon Park in eastern Orange. The tree planting is sponsored by the Irvine Ranch Water District and the Shadetree Partnership, a national organization dedicated to the planting of water-efficient trees and plants. Participants are asked to bring gloves and shovels if possible.

An hour from the heart of Hollywood in Thousand Oaks, Greenfield Ranch has drawn dozens of film, television and commercial productions over the years. Now the bucolic ranch is playing a starring role in the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie "We Bought a Zoo. " The 450-acre property, where Roy Rogers and Gary Cooper once shot westerns, was transformed over several months into a makeshift zoo that is the centerpiece of the Cameron Crowe-directed film opening Friday. The $50-million production, adapted from a memoir of the same name by former British journalist Benjamin Mee, stars Matt Damon as a widowed father who moves his family from Los Angeles to the countryside to renovate and reopen a dilapidated zoo. The book was set at Dartmoor Zoological Park in England, but the movie takes place in the fictional Rosemoor Wildlife Park, a run-down animal sanctuary in an unnamed rural Southern California town.

It wouldn't be going out on a limb to say a solitary oak helped define Ed Lawrence's life — and preserve the ranching history of Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. The 350-year-old valley oak was standing in the middle of an Albertson Ranch hayfield near the Los Angeles-Ventura county line when Lawrence first noticed it in March 1962. Lawrence had wangled special permission to take a few pictures on the ranch, a working 12,000-acre cattle spread and movie locale that normally was closed to outsiders.

Actor Todd Stashwick has sold his Laurel Canyon house for $816,000, public records show. The original property, built in 1922, was much smaller than the 2,682-square-foot home today. Earlier owners redesigned and expanded the property to its three-bedroom, 31/2 -bathroom configuration. The house includes a double-height dining room, a family room with wood-burning fireplace and a master suite with a fireplace and balcony. The grounds have a motorized rock-bed stream, a children's playhouse and a 200-year-old oak tree.

A hungry pest called the goldspotted oak borer is devouring enormous numbers of oak trees in San Diego County and its devastation could spread to trees throughout California, according to researchers at UC Riverside. More than 80,000 oak trees in the county have been killed in the last decade. Unless the spread of the half-inch-long beetle is stopped, it could threaten 10 million acres of red oaks in the state, researchers said. "This may be the biggest oak mortality event since the Pleistocene [epoch]

Wasting no time, newly elected Calabasas City Council members have helped scrap a controversial plan to extend a sewer line into Old Topanga Canyon. The sewer construction plan had prompted a city crackdown on 40 homes with septic tanks, including raids at several houses. While checking septic systems, inspectors cited homeowners for other alleged building code violations. "I think the very dark cloud that is hanging over this city will be lifted," Councilwoman Mary Sue Maurer said Wednesday night as the panel voted unanimously to halt the sewer planning.

Back to the future, but not quite. The California Horse Racing Board voted Thursday to award the Southern California autumn racing dates from Sept. 28 through Nov. 6 to the Santa Anita-based Pacific Racing Assn., in a development that will effectively end more than 40 years of the Oak Tree Racing Assn. operating and controlling those dates. The return of these race dates to the Arcadia track comes after the 2010 Oak Tree meeting was run at Hollywood Park because Santa Anita voided a lease with Oak Tree.

Students at Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula planted half a dozen oak trees Tuesday in memory of two teachers in the school's outdoor program who were killed last month in a Utah avalanche. The deaths of Max Lyon and Karl Mueggler had a large impact on students at the private school who had learned how to navigate the wilderness in the program that the two taught.

The Forest Lawn Co. filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop the city from eliminating an ordinance exemption that allows the company to remove oak trees from cemetery property. The company plans to seek damages estimated in excess of $100 million, according to the Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit. Forest Lawn wants to remove a number of the trees to create more burial plots, the suit says.

Before architect Elmer Grey designed the Beverly Hills Hotel or the Pasadena Playhouse, he took up the task of designing something far more personal: a home of his own. Starting with a woodsy lot on the western edge of Pasadena's Oak Knoll District, Grey let his desire to keep nature close drive his vision. An Engelmann oak with a broad, green canopy became the starting point around which the house was sited. The house faces west and is surrounded by gardens and greenery that are visible from just about every room.