Tree Count Comes Under City Hall Attack : Surveys: Critics say the effort will cost too much and will exclude too many areas. About 60% of the city's estimated 680,000 trees are to be counted.

By DEAN MURPHY

July 8, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A street-by-street inventory of the city of Los Angeles’ sprawling urban forest is set to begin later this month, but the tally has come under fire by some at City Hall for being too expensive and not inclusive enough.

Horticulturists using hand-held computers are to canvass sidewalks and parkways in an ambitious effort to count and characterize the city’s enormous street tree population, believed to be the largest in the country. Environmentalists and city maintenance officials say the inventory will help the city preserve and better manage the tree population.

But because of budget cuts, city officials predict the 15-month survey will exclude San Pedro, Wilmington, Harbor City, Harbor Gateway and portions of the Westside and northeast Los Angeles.

Bob Kennedy, the city’s street tree superintendent, said the count should cover about 60% of the city’s estimated 680,000 street trees, starting in the San Fernando Valley and moving south until money runs out. “We just don’t have the funding to do the whole thing,” he said.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents the Harbor area, said the tally should be postponed until the city is in better financial shape to canvass all communities. She complained that areas left out of the survey may never be counted, meaning trees there may get less attention than those in other parts of the city.

“If they can’t do the whole city, then they shouldn’t do any of the city,” Flores said.

She added: “The inventory is a good idea, but it is like dessert. We have a budget crunch. I question whether we have the luxury to count trees during a year when we are cutting the basics in the city.”

Councilwoman Gloria Molina, who represents central Los Angeles, said she plans to challenge funding for the inventory during the council’s annual budget review this month.

“It is a good idea and a good goal, but it doesn’t make sense when you don’t have the money to carry it out completely,” Molina said. “I would rather that we strengthen the city’s tree-trimming capability before we start enumerating trees.”

The City Council allocated $500,000 for the tally in 1989 as part of a three-year, $1.5-million funding plan. But this year’s $500,000 allocation was eliminated during budget deliberations. Confronted with what officials called the tightest financial squeeze in years, the council imposed across-the-board spending cuts for most departments, imposed a package of tax increases and abandoned plans for 403 new police officers in the 1990-91 budget.

“Next year, we are going to have an even worse year,” said Flores, referring to warnings by economic consultants that the city’s financial woes are not over. “I think it is more important to count police officers than it is to count trees at this point.”

Kennedy, however, said it is too late for the council to tinker with the $500,000 allocated last year for the tree inventory. The city’s Board of Public Works awarded a contract in June to Irvine-based Golden Coast Environmental Services, which is charging the city $1 for each tree counted.

Kennedy defended the inventory as sound environmental planning.

“We have major agreement in Los Angeles that our environment is a No. 1 issue, be it air quality or quality of life in general,” he said. “I need to know how many trees are out there and how I can manage them so that we can keep them alive and healthy. They help clean the air, have a cooling effect and provide other direct benefits to everyone.”

Andy Lipkis, president of TreePeople, an environmental group that has pushed for the inventory, said delaying the survey could lead to further “destruction of the city’s infrastructure” by putting off better care for the trees. Lipkis said a partial count is better than no count at all.

“Ultimately, we will pay, and we will pay more if we don’t make the initial investment now,” Lipkis said. “It is vital that it get started. Ultimately, we need the whole thing. But having 60% is better than having nothing, and maybe we can figure out a way to get the job finished.”

Golden Coast’s roaming horticulturists are to punch into computers information about each tree’s location, size, species, height, diameter, health and maintenance needs. They will also document vacant sites where trees have died or been removed, and make special note of trees with potential historic or cultural significance.

The data then is to be used by the city’s street tree division to set pruning schedules, make suggestions to communities interested in planting trees, replace troublesome and dangerous trees, and recommend trees as city landmarks.

Currently, the city spends about $12 million a year on street tree maintenance. Trees are trimmed on a seven-year cycle based on geography, not on the particular needs of species. With the database, city officials said they will be able to better dispatch their trimming crews and move away from “grid trimming,” as the current system is called. Fruitless mulberry trees, for example, could be trimmed every three years, while magnolias, which require less care, could be trimmed on a 10-year cycle, officials said.

“Right now, you end up with some severe over-pruning of trees in order to have it last longer,” Lipkis said. “What we have here is a mess, rather than a bunch of resources serving us.”

Cities across the country that have conducted inventories report that their street trees are healthier and are living longer, according to a spokesman for the American Forestry Assn., a nonprofit group based in Washington. In some cities, such as Milwaukee, street trees are living nearly twice as long as the national average of 32 years, said Gary Moll, the group’s vice president of urban forestry.

“It is real important,” Moll said. “Trees produce all of their environmental benefits back to the city as they get bigger. The inventory helps you find out what the trees need and how to care for them so they do get bigger.”

West Hollywood, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica are among local cities that have conducted inventories over the past several years. Officials from all three cities described the surveys as important management tools.

“It is not just the inventory, but the supporting software that is helpful,” said Cyndy Holtz, landscape superintendent for West Hollywood, which conducted its survey last August. “For each tree in the city, the computer keeps a history. Any time we get a service request for a tree, we can use the computer to look at everything that has been done to it over the years.”

In Redondo Beach, the inventory identified 2,800 vacant street sites on which the city plans to plant trees over the next year, said Ken Dyer, superintendent of parks. Dyer said the computerized system has saved city officials hundreds of hours of time.