The California Coastal Commission recently approved the planned planting of five oak trees in Gum Grove Park. Seal Beach staff expect the trees to be planted in the near future.
“However, we are unable to proceed with the project until the Coastal Commission has provided us a copy of the administrative permit and the permit is signed by the City,” wrote Seal Beach Community Development Director Les Johnson on April 21.
“It is unclear at this time as to when that will occur. In the meantime, staff will be taking a number of preparatory steps necessary for us to proceed in a timely fashion with the project once the permit has been signed,” Johnson wrote.
The Coastal Commission approved the project unanimously on April 16. However, there were some conditions attached to the approval, according to Recreation Manager Tim Kelsey’s staff report to the April 28 Recreation and Parks Commission meeting.
“As a result, staff is now further engaging with the archeologist for monitoring, reaching out to the Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians for tribal monitoring, and also in communication with B&B Nursery to address certain conditions and prepare for installation,” Kelsey wrote.
“Staff remains hopeful that the project will be able to proceed in the next few weeks. Once the tree installation portion of the project has been completed staff will begin work on the installation of the new signage,” Kelsey wrote.
The oak trees are intended to replace trees that were illegally removed more than five years ago. The number of trees that were illegally removed has been disputed since the grove was removed on Saturday, March 2006. According to the Seal Beach Police Department report on the incident, the responding officer saw workers pushing cut tree limbs and branches into “a large wood chipper” attached to the back of a truck. At the time, the tree service that did the cutting estimated 15 to 20 trees were cut down. Later, City Attorney Craig Steele would put the number at 150 (citing the city arborist as his source) in a letter demanding compensation for the tree removal.
Now, more than five years later, native oak trees are going to be planted in Gum Grove Park.
“To minimize further disturbance, the applicant proposes to plant the first of the five oak trees at the location where the earth removal has already taken place, with an archeological monitor and a tribal monitor present to screen the removed earth for archeological/tribal resources,” according to the California Coastal Commission staff report.
“The applicant proposes to plant the remaining four oak trees using only hand tools, with both the archeological and tribal monitors present to screen the removed earth,” according to the CCC report.
“Archaeological monitoring services will be provided by ASM Affiliates, Inc. and Native American monitoring will be provided independently by a member of the Gabrieleno Tongva San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians tribe,” according to the CCC report.
In an April 6 email, Community Development Director Johnson, said the city had hired a landscaping contractor to plant the trees. “It is my understanding that the contractor has already secured the trees for this project,” Johnson wrote.
