The city of Thousand Oaks is removing some of the trees named after it from the grounds around City Hall.
After an arborist raised concerns about the health of some oak trees on the Civic Arts Plaza property, the city hired an outside professional to examine nearly 30 trees on the property.
This arborist classified nine of these trees as “likely” to be at risk or at risk of failure, meaning they could threaten the safety of people and property. Six of these were protected oaks (two California holm oaks and four California holm oaks), according to an analysis of oak harvesting permits.
“Third-party testing is only necessary if our arborist identifies problems with the trees,” city spokeswoman Alexandra South said by email.
“Our arborist regularly checks the trees and many of them are nearing the end of their natural lifespan (some are estimated to be several hundred years old), so there is a heightened awareness of the danger their failure poses to the local population.”
SAFETY FROM SHADOW – The city is in the process of removing six oak trees from the Civic Arts Plaza property. The first tree, pictured above, was cut down Monday morning. BECCA WHITNALL/Acorn Newspapers
On the day of the announcement, crews began removing trees, first taking down a large tree on the east side and front of Thousand Oaks Boulevard across from the Civic Arts Plaza site.
Two additional trees located across Lakes Drive will be removed, as well as one in the southwest corner of the property, one along TO Boulevard and another further toward the center of the property.
The city issued itself the necessary tree removal permits before work began on Monday, August 12.
While the city’s tree protection policies generally require that each protected oak tree removed be replaced with three trees, a different standard applies to endangered trees. These only need to be replaced on a one-for-one basis and only if they are located in certain designated use areas. Although these trees are not located in those specific zone types, the city has said it will replace the trees. It has not yet been determined where the replacement trees will be planted, South said.
