A contractor who chopped down six decades-old palm trees on a San Fernando median has deeply upset some residents, who immediately "organized a vigil on Sunday night and decorated the site with makeshift grave markers." The Daily News reports that, though the median was being redecorated with water-saving elements and drought-friendly plantings, San Fernando officials maintain that the queen palm trees were not supposed to be cut down, and the city council is rushing to deal with the matter.
Though San Fernando leaders were surprised by the loss of the trees, the contractor who felled the palms says that chopping them down was part of the plan; in fact, he says that he was also supposed to take out the three palms that remain on the median along Brand Boulevard. As SF leaders work to "to unravel the blame trail" for the incident, they've also decided to replace the trees, and have added six palms to the list of plants that are set to go into the median. The landscape architect for the project says "Of all the palms to replace in the works, those are the easiest and least expensive. It isn't that terrible. It isn't the end of the world."
· Palm trees cut by mistake angers San Fernando community [DN]