Santa Ana activists and arborists this week found themselves mourning a tree they were trying to save.
Despite mounting resident calls for consideration of alternatives, Santa Ana city officials early Wednesday morning rolled out heavy equipment – backed up by a nearby row of police vehicles – and destroyed a 50-year old large ficus tree that sat on the city library patio.
City officials ignored calls for comment from Voice of OC about the planned destruction.
And city council members were largely a no show on the controversy.
While several council members were tied up at Bowers Museum Tuesday evening, celebrating their re-election just after a city swearing in ceremony, concerned residents and activists were trying to reach them to stop the tree removal happening the next morning.
One council member, Benjamin Vazquez, who did answer Voice of OC texts on the eve of the tree removal, left the impression that there was nothing city officials could do about the city administrators’ plan.
“It was in the library remodel plans.I was told it’s causing structural damage to the building,” texted Vazquez, who lost to incumbent Mayor Valerie Amezcua in last month’s election.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, who has stressed climate-friendly policies from the county dais, said she only learned about the removal on the day of, adding that she also called Santa Ana City Council members and the city manager to pause the removal to discuss what could be done.
No one answered.
Foley says she commented to all of the Santa Ana council members weeks ago to keep an eye on the tree, especially during all the renovations in the Civic Center– not knowing its removal was imminent.
Since last year, local arborists told Voice of OC they also sent letters to Santa Ana Public Works, hoping their professional opinions would be considered amid the library remodel.
At the same time, there is a rising tide of questions about whether Santa Ana city officials follow city protocols on tree removals and who made the decision to destroy the tree.
According to the Santa Ana City 2021 Urban Forrest Management plan, Section 4: Removal of Trees, a protocol must be followed.
“Public trees are considered an important asset of the city. As such, it is the practice of the city to preserve trees whenever possible. There are certain conditions in which a tree must be removed, such as when it is considered an emergency. This includes trees identified as an imminent hazard and/or trees that exceed the threshold of risk. Other conditions require the review and approval of the arborist.”
Residents want to see the paperwork where the arborist signed off.
Voice of OC asked the Santa Ana city officials if there was a professional assessment of the ficus tree – but the questions were ignored.
Yet the official pattern in Santa Ana of ignoring public calls itself isn’t going unnoticed.
“This is not representative of what a city should provide to the people in regard to public trees. We need to have visibility on what their projects are and how they impact existing trees because I think if people really knew, they would advocate against it,” said Rhonda Wood, a Santa Ana resident and arborist.
“They would say, ‘What else could we do and really look at the projects and not just go, oh, okay, they’re just updating the city and making it great,’ but meanwhile, they [the city] don’t really share the truth,” said Wood in a Wednesday interview.
This is the second time this year that activists and residents find themselves advocating for their public assets moments before Santa Ana destroys them.
A mural by “The Godfather of Chicano Art,” Emigdio Vasquez, was set to be removed during a city pool remodel.
This wasn’t the first time it had happened to the celebrated Chicano artist. Three of his other murals in the years before had been wiped out amid Santa Ana city remodels.
Read here: Santa Ana Move to Erase Chicano Gothic Mural Triggers Debate
“It’s exhausting to have to maintain a constant hypervigilance, and knowing that your the basic needs in a city, like shade, in a city that gets as unbearable as Santa Ana does in the summer, and that those basic needs are under constant threat,” says Julia Rigby, a Santa Ana resident and artist who was out on Wednesday morning, watching city officials destroy the tree.
Concerned working-class residents, who sometimes don’t have time to visit city hall, want more educational campaigns and ordinances that protect mature trees that cool down city spaces.
“Local community members aren’t being made aware of the threats; it just seems like these decisions are happening without our knowledge,” said Rigby.
Activists tried to stop the removal Wednesday morning but by 7 a.m., the time of their action, the tree branches were already hitting the pavement while police officers patrolled across the street.
City officials put out a statement Wednesday afternoon.
“This was not an easy determination to make, but the removal of this tree was necessary to preserve the integrity of the first major renovation of the Main Library in over 60 years,” City Manager Alvaro Nuñez said in a press release.
“This will allow us to renovate both the library building and patio for use by future generations of Santa Ana residents in the heart of our Civic Center Plaza.”
The city of Santa Ana, which spends over $4 million a year on tree programs, reiterated its issues with the tree in a city press release.
“The tree’s root system can reach 30 feet or more in diameter, and 90% of the roots are above ground, creating tripping hazards for residents and staff. Situated less than 10 feet from the Library’s foundation, the tree poses maintenance concerns to the building’s foundation, roof and plumbing systems caused by the uncontrolled, buttressing root system and overgrown tree canopy,” reads the release.
The city of Santa Ana also claimed injuries to employees had occurred, fruit and that debris droppings were a nuisance.
But there’s a letter sent to the city from, Don Hodel, a Emeritus Environmental and Landscape Horticulture Advisor Specializing in Palms, Trees, and Landscape Management
with the University of California where he explains that roots only grow to that size in tropical conditions.
“While the City’s claim that the “buttressing root system” can reach up to 30 feet in diameter is true for wet tropical locales, it is flatly untrue for arid, subtropical California,” reads Holden’s 2023 letter.
Wood, an arborist who managed over 16,000 Disneyland trees during construction phases as the park’s urban forester, says there could have been selective root pruning with a root examination assessment by a professional arborist and that a netting system could have helped control the debris.
In the press release, city officials stated they made multiple attempts to engage the public, but nowhere in their release is there messaging that says the iconic tree would be torn down, activists say.
“It is unclear where the amphitheater was going in relation to the tree,” said Wood, who started raising concerns a year before the city council approved the project construction agreement in August of 2024.
While Santa Ana is cutting down mature canopy trees, Wood points to other cities trying to save them.
Cities like Los Angeles are preserving canopy trees in their first Urban Forrest Management plan under the “Tree Canopy Equity” initiative.
“This strategy will consider and include not only priority areas for tree planting and establishment care investments but also tree preservation and maintenance recommendations to ensure existing trees continue to grow and support the City’s tree canopy” reads the Los Angeles City’s Urban Forest Management Plan.
Wood believes the destruction of the library tree was unnecessary, saying it’s a “shame” that the city of Santa Ana doesn’t have stronger policies in place to vet removals.
Activists and arborists are now calling for the Santa Ana Tree Urban Forrest Management guide to be updated.
One artist, Ben Kingsley, who recorded the parrots daily during sunset at the ficus tree, found that the birds nested and fed off the fruit in the ficus tree.
Foley, who said she usually enjoys views of the iconic tree from her office window at the county supervisors nearby building, noted that on Wednesday, her view was replaced by hundreds of parrots frantically flying around, confused and going in circles around the tree stump.
Kingsley is asking why two important resources for the city can’t co-exist.
“I think this is an interesting conflict between wanting to preserve a library, which is an important resource for the community, right? And this tree, which is an important resource for the community, but in a less human-centric way”
“We understand why the library is important, but we overlook the reasons why the tree is really important because we don’t see it directly benefiting us as clearly. However, we have to keep in mind that the natural landscape, urban habitat and urban forests are incredibly important to the health of the community, including all of the things that aren’t human.”
Arborists and grand jury reports agree.
Canopy trees, like the ficus, are essential to the health of Santa Ana residents.
[Read: Santa Ana Officials Rethink Use of Non-Shade Trees As They Reimagine City’s Urban Forest]
“From an urban forest perspective, the city can take action and improve, and so this doesn’t happen again, is to review the master plan and make sure there’s an updated urban forest plan that includes tree protection, ensuring that there are assessments done on trees of a certain age, a certain size, so that we don’t lose our tree canopy,” says Wood, who is also President of Woodworks Tree Preservation.
“I went out there, it was terrible,” said Julio Chávez, 48, a Santa Ana resident and artist, who watched the branches fall to the ground early Wednesday morning.
Chavez remembers how the ficus captured his imagination as a child during the summers in Santa Ana, finding refuge under the tree from the library’s fluorescent lights.
“I would read under the shade of the tree during the summers when the parrots were just starting to visit,” said Chávez.
“It looked like something from a Jumanji book or an Indiana Jones movie.”