Residents Fight Zoo for Koalas’ Eucalyptus

Freeway-adjacent residents are battling to keep what is left of a eucalyptus grove that is being slowly cut and carted off to feed koalas at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The trees are needed as a noise barrier and to stave off gasoline fumes from the Ventura Freeway, residents say.

Zoo officials counter that the five-acre grove was planted in 1983 to be harvested to feed koalas and was never meant to be a buffer between homes and the freeway.

Koalas are finicky eaters that will like only fresh eucalyptus leaves, according to zoologists.

At a meeting Tuesday night, irate neighbors blasted zoo officials and their idea to cut more trees, leaving only a 100-foot buffer zone between the residences and the freeway.

“As renters and homeowners we should have a right to go in our backyards and enjoy the serenity of our children without being bombarded and blasted by noise on the freeway,” said Rocky Rushing, state Sen. Tom Hayden’s chief of staff, who lives on McCormick Street.

But Bill Stronach, who bought his Saville Avenue home in 1952 before the freeway was built, said residents have lived next to the freeway for years without the eucalyptus trees.

“[When] you bought your house you knew the freeway was there,” he said.

The discussion was so heated that zoo officials cut the meeting short by 30 minutes.

Since June, the zoo has cut more than 200 trees, some to 6 feet, others to stumps. The cutting promotes new growth and makes the leaves more accessible to zoo workers, said Manuel Mollinedo, zoo director.

The land, owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, is leased to the city Department of Recreation and Parks and used by the zoo.

Charles “Steve” Dwyer, the corps’ chief of operations in Los Angeles, said the zoo doesn’t need a permit to cut the trees. The land is designated for agricultural use and harvesting and cutting trees is consistent with that use.

Zoo officials could cut every tree in the grove if they wished, Dwyer said.

Area residents say they plan to write to zoo officials and Mayor Richard Riordan demanding that the trees remain and requesting funds to help subsidize a quarter-mile sound wall along the freeway.