Talk of the Point

What kind of a landowner would cut all his trees down? The Point Richmond Collective Newsletter’s November 1 issue asked that question but offered no facts. TOTP investigated.

In the article, writer and former attorney Fred H. Arm argues that the trees were community assets and that the community should have been consulted before they were cut down. I agree with that in principle, but sometimes one has to act fast.

Landowner Jay Fenton said he faced an immediate threat. Five of his 40 monterey pines on the hillside near 19 Stairley Street were near death from bark beetle infestation–the same condition that has struck most of the Point’s pines. The five trees were so weak, he said, that they endangered adjacent houses. The other trees also showed signs of infestation.

The loggers he employed asked $10,000 for cutting down the five weak trees or–in the economy size– $24,000 for taking care of the lot of them.

David Wager, director of forest management certification at Scientific Certification Systems in Emeryville, said the mortality rate of trees stricken with pitch canker and then infested with bark beetles is almost 100 percent. So far, there is no cure or effective treatment. However, some trees have shown natural resistance to pitch canker.

If Fenton really has been the Johnny Appleseed of local pine trees he claims to be–he says he’s planted hundreds over the years–he winces along with the rest of us at the sight of men taking a tree apart.

I don’t know Jay Fenton. But if I were put in the same pickle, I might have done the same thing. Whether he did the right thing or not, he deserves to have his side of the story heard.

Stay tuned. We’re only in round one of beetles vs. landowners vs. community assets.

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