City to Inspect CdM Eucalyptus Trees After Fatality - Corona del Mar Today
City to Inspect CdM Eucalyptus Trees After Fatality
Newport Beach officials will inspect all the city's Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees, including those in Corona del Mar, following the death of a Tustin woman last week on the Costa Mesa-Newport Beach border.
Haeyoon Miller, 29, was killed Thursday when a 50-foot tree fell on her vehicle near the intersection of Irvine Avenue and Westcliff / 17th Street. The tree was in a median, and the boundary line between the two cities runs down the center, city officials said in a statement.
"Under a 2002 agreement with Costa Mesa, Newport Beach maintains the median and the trees within it," the statement said. "Costa Mesa is conducting the accident investigation, but the City of Newport Beach is investigating what caused the tree to fall."
The 104 trees in the median are routinely inspected every six months, and they are pruned once a year. The fallen tree's canopy was trimmed in April, officials said. A city arborist's initial observation of the fallen tree did not show any evidence of disease, but the stump will be analyzed by a city arborist, contract arborists and a third-party arborist to determine what might have caused it to fall. The tree was 60 years old and weighed about 10 tons.
"In addition, the City's arborist and its tree maintenance contractor, West Coast Arborists, are inspecting every tree in the median along Irvine Avenue from Westcliff / 17th Street to Dover Drive," the statement said. The third-party arborist will inspect those trees and make a recommendation to remove trees found to have any potential risk of falling.
"Newport Beach is a 106-year old community with an inventory of 36,000 well-loved street trees and it has been named a 'Tree City' for decades," said Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff. "The trees along Irvine Avenue may have been planted as a wind break long before Irvine Avenue became the six-lane thoroughfare we know it as today. Many in our community would say that the Irvine Avenue Eucalyptus row helps define the visual identity of the west bay neighborhoods. We understand that sentiment, but if we find that other trees may be at risk of falling, public safety will prevail and those trees will be removed."
The Blue Gum Eucalyptus is a common, but non-native, tree in California. Newport Beach no longer plants the trees, the statement said.
City spokeswoman Tara Finnigan did not know when Corona del Mar's eucalyptus trees would be inspected.There are 432 Blue Gum Eucalyptus in other areas of the city, she said.
19 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEEKLznlgXIaKAUHdfcTUTF7B-4ig&url=http://www.coronadelmartoday.com/?p=22818
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com
