March 8, 2000

A Reactor column, five years late

Attorney Israel Sanft, a P B & R Commissioner, and a recent Rotary Club speaker, dropped a quiet bombshell on a recent Tuesday morning. He noted casually that perhaps 90 per cent of Pacifica's Monterey Pines will die over the next decade. That is big news, especially if the weakened tree blows over in a high wind and takes your house with it. It wasn't news to me. I'd prepared the following column on the subject for Feb. 1995, but for several reasons, it never ran. After his comment, it seems appropriate to run it now, slightly edited:

Is your Monterey Pine sick? The University of California is reporting a disease called Pitch Canker, which has been spreading from Santa Cruz north to Mendocino County and South to San Diego. In some areas as many as 85 percent of the trees are affected.

According to the UC publication "California Agriculture" the disease is ravaging pines along the Highway One corridor. While UC's primary concern is commercial operations such as Christmas tree farms, Pacifica would be most affected through our heavy investment in Monterey Pines as landscaping. Unfortunately the disease is also reported to have jumped to other pine species and Douglas Fir. Since Douglas Fir is a major lumber tree, that is really bad news.

It has been called "a potential catastrophe." There are currently no proven preventive measures. The disease is caused by a fungus, and may be taken from tree to tree by beetles. Sometimes it takes as little as two weeks to kill a tree.

There is some hope that resistant strains can be grown, but that will not be of immediate help to Pacificans with a few pines in their landscaping. If you have an infected tree, or your neighbor does, you may have an expensive, complicated procedure ahead of you, especially if your tree meets the definition of a heritage tree. A heritage tree in Pacifica is any tree other than Eucalyptus 50 inches or more in circumference (16 inches in diameter) 24 inches above the ground. You can plant a Monterey Pine when your baby is born and have a heritage tree when he's a teenager.

You need permission from the city to remove a heritage tree. Your neighbors must be notified and given the opportunity to object. After you've overcome these obstacles, your tree may cost you hundreds, perhaps into the thousand dollar range to have removed, especially if it must be taken down in pieces to avoid damaging houses and fences.

If your tree is infected and you do not act promptly to remove it, your tree could act as a source of infection for the whole neighborhood. If your tree should die, presumably the city will allow you to take it down without complications, but it can still be expensive.

If your neighbor has an infected tree that endangers your house or fence should it fall, it might be wise to send him a certified letter through the post office, with a duplicate to yourself, pointing out the danger and the need to remove the tree. If you send the letter, your neighbor may have less of an argument that any damage resulting from the fallen tree would be an act of God. After all, if you can anticipate the problem, so can he. If you think you might have a problem, you might want to call the San Mateo County Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Half Moon Bay, 726 9059, for advice.

Paul Azevedo's e-mail address is Paul@thereactor.net