The City of Santa Monica wants to remove mature, damaged ficus trees along Second and Fourth and replace them with baby ginkgos. Officials justify their version of the future with this tree rendering showing ficus and ginkgo in harmonious co-habitation. But Santa Monica Daily Press letter-writer Dan Jansenson is onto them:
The image shows the intended gingko trees only as they will appear after 15 years of growth, and the shade cast by the ginkgos in the picture is actually cast by the ficus trees that were airbrushed out! In real life, fully grown ginkgos cast far less shade, and then only during the months when they have leaves. Meanwhile, as SM chops 'em down, LA puts 'em back up. As of September, Million Trees LA has planted 107,037.
· City Hall defends decision to remove damaged trees [SM Daily Press]
· Help save the trees [Santa Monica Treesavers]