Alfredo Jimenez saws up a 55-foot-tall palm tree Monday afternoon on West Pine Street after it was taken down by West Coast Arborists. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

A cutting end

Old palm tree on Pine Street in Lodi is history

A 55-foot-tall date palm tree, the longtime resident of a grassy three-foot wide "park strip" on Pine Street between California and Rose streets, was cut down Monday.

No one's sure, but the tree may have lived there for 80 years.

The 70-year-old man whose house was nearby said he asked the city to cut it down. He said he was tired of mowing over the fruits that fell off the tree, and cutting down the pesky little seedlings that sprouted up on his lawn.

"I like trees, but sometimes their usefulness ... " said Bob Combs, who trailed off as he shook his head at the thousands of hardened, marble-sized, orange dates that had collected on the grass and sidewalk after workers chopped down the tree.

Combs said he grew up in Lodi and has lived in the house at the corner of California and Pine streets for 22 years.

City of Lodi tree operations specialist Ray Fye said the female palm and other palm trees in Lodi were diagnosed with a disease about five years ago by the city's previous arborist Bill Hobson, who is also a member of the nonprofit group Tree Lodi. Fye said he didn't know the specific disease.

Fye said the city was concerned with pigeon droppings, the possible danger of dates that fall off the tree and the fact that palm trees offer no shade.

"Trees, like people, have a life span, and when it's time to go, we're going to take it down before it comes down on its own," Fye said.

Fye said the tree, owned and cared for by the city, may have been planted by developers who built the neighborhood.

Some homes were constructed in the early 1920s, homeowners said.

About four years ago, a car hit the tree, homeowners said. The resulting hole in the lower part of the trunk left it exposed to disease.

The city stopped its yearly palm tree trimmings about four years ago as well, Combs said. The tree-trimmers had until then removed dying leaves and branches of fruits that would otherwise fall into the street.

Soon after the tree was deemed diseased, two ginkgo trees were planted on either side to make up for the potential bare spot along the tree-lined street, Fye said.

On Monday, the crew from West Coast Arborists also removed four sycamores from Forrest Street and planted pear trees across the street, before sidewalk improvements, Fye said.

Some nearby homeowners disagreed with cutting down the date palm.

The tree cut down on Monday was female, or fruit-producing. A palm tree in front of Toni Maerzluft's house across the street is male, or pollenizing.

Piles of dates from a local palm tree that was cut down Monday cover the ground on West Pine Street. (Brian Feulner/News-Sentinel)

Maerzluft said he hoped the city would have instead removed the two magnolia trees whose roots are causing damage to the sidewalk and his lawn. Maerzluft also took issue with the cleanup — workers used blowers to push the trash to his side of the street.

Thomas Elliott fashioned the wooden lattices of his back gate to mirror the stately trees on both sides of Pine Street.

"This is California. It's not like ginkgo or cork oak are real native to California," Elliott said. "In the winter, it's nice to see a little green. Some people's ideas of what is heritage and history and what should go are different from other people's."

Contact reporter Kendyce Manguchei at kendycem@lodinews.com.

First published: Tuesday, February 13, 2007