“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone?
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.” — Joni Mitchell: “Big Yellow Taxi”Driving into barren, burn-scarred Altadena, it’s easy to imagine it becoming one enormous parking lot in front of mega-sized apartment complexes, especially if greedy developers and speculators get their way. Besides homes, what else is missing? The urban forest that once covered our beloved Altadena in a lush, cooling canopy of vegetation.
I have cried my eyes out while driving through Pasadena streets that are so thick with trees that I had to pull over. The experience is still triggering for me. The purple Jacaranda, the ubiquitous coastal oaks, the enormous and fragrant eucalyptus and the giant sycamores… we really don’t know what we’ve got ’til it’s gone. That’s why I was buoyed with hope when I got a notice from Michael Bicay, president of Altadena Wild, about the “Regreen Altadena Treefest,” which kicks off tomorrow.
As I read the press release more carefully, I realized I would have to miss the community-oriented event. I wrote Mr. Bicay and said, “Hi, Michael. Sadly, I have to miss the Altadena Regreen event. I’ll still write a print and Substack column about it, but the print edition won’t run in time to attract more attendees. Besides showing up at the Odyssey School on November 8th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, is there something I can direct people toward after the gathering?”
Michael answered, “The event aims to initiate a process rather than be a one-time occurrence. During the ‘planting season’ from winter through spring, AltadenaWILD and its partners will gather an inventory of three- to five-foot-tall, 15-gallon trees of various species, including coastal live oaks, Engelmann oaks, sycamores, and citrus trees. Our website already encourages fire-impacted Altadena homeowners to register to be added to a list for these young trees, and over 100 people have already signed up. We will establish a process to match requests with available inventory throughout the growing season.
The Los Angeles Conservation Corps will assist with planting after consulting with arborists on proper placement. We are not limiting registration to occupied homes. Many hundreds of Altadena homeowners without a home still request water service to maintain their plants and trees.”
Michael continued, “We will also create a plan to distribute smaller two-to-three-gallon, one-foot-tall saplings throughout the season. One of our challenges is managing expectations. People who have lost a 50-foot tree will want to replace it with a 50-foot tree. However, Nature doesn’t work that way!”
For many years, we enjoyed margaritas beneath our home’s glorious Altadena orange and fig trees. My husband often boasts to friends that I make the best margaritas in town. The last time this came up in conversation, it reminded me of how I would pick limes from our tree to make the margarita mix, and I went down the Rabbit Hole of Sadness yet again. By the way, since I don’t drink, I used Ritual Zero Proof tequila alternative; I had just purchased two bottles of their gin and two bottles of tequila last December. I sent Ritual an email and asked if they’d be willing to replace the faux booze, and they did — no questions asked — and just got a lifelong customer. Consider buying from them for your non-alcohol drinking guests.
I’ve come to accept that I won’t live long enough to see a fully restored tree canopy in Altadena, but I can envision there being enough trees to provide shade and fruit within my lifetime. Our property was like a Garden of Eden, full of trees. We had avocado, plum, peach, pear, fig, loquat, kumquat, tangerine, Valencia orange, lemon, lime, pomegranate, and grapefruit. In spring, the scent from the citrus trees was dizzyingly intoxicating. This is one of the many reasons I love Southern California.
The ReGreen project has strong sponsorship from AltadenaWILD Inc. (AW), in partnership with California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and Outward Bound Adventures (OBA), Inc. Michael said, “We are taking the first steps in rebuilding our lost tree canopy, estimated to be as much as 75%, while working with other community organizations to empower residents with knowledge to care for and maintain new trees.” Of course, urban tree maven Rebecca Latta is playing a significant role in this vision of a “regreened” Altadena.
I hope to get a three- to five-foot-tall lime tree in a 15-gallon pot from ReGreen Altadena. That size would be large enough to produce a few batches of margaritas quickly. Hey, a gal can dream, can’t she?
Gloria Steinem said, “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” I’ll toast to that.
Enter The Dragon
Here’s another dream that could become a reality. For over 30 years, Sipoo Hearring has owned Two Dragons Martial Arts, a cornerstone of the Altadena community. Two Dragons was a safe place where children, families, and neighbors came together to grow in strength, confidence, and unity. Is there someone out there with deep enough pockets to buy the property for Ms. Hearring and carry the mortgage? Please widely share this GoFundMe link and help not only the owner but also all of Altadena avoid becoming a wasteland of treeless, overpriced, overbuilt apartment buildings!
If you’re interested in my online creative writing class, email me. Also, many of you have asked if there is a GoFundMe campaign to help us recover from the devastating loss of our home and possessions. The answer is yes! You can donate here.