Oak Protection Before Kern Supervisors Next Month

  • A friend stands next to a towering 40 foot oak that was threatened recently by cutting above Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Lebec.

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    A friend stands next to a towering 40 foot oak that was threatened recently by cutting above Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Lebec.

  • Chris Frykholm measures the circumference of one of the downed trees. She said it was 6 feet around. She called the county for help.

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    Chris Frykholm measures the circumference of one of the downed trees. She said it was 6 feet around. She called the county for help.

  • Oakridge Mobile Home Park on Lebec Drive in Lebec was named for an oak woodland on the ridge above the flat park below (looking from the ridge down at the park). Now half the oaks appear shaved away.

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    Oakridge Mobile Home Park on Lebec Drive in Lebec was named for an oak woodland on the ridge above the flat park below (looking from the ridge down at the park). Now half the oaks appear shaved away.

When Kern County contractors and county personnel killed a 400-year-old heritage oak tree (and the 200 to 300-year-old oak beside it) at the new library construction site in Frazier Park on the morning of Saturday, June 12, widespread expressions of community trauma led to the call for a Kern County oak tree ordinance to protect heritage trees.

“This is what makes our area unique,” businesswoman Linda Robredo said in an appearance before the Kern County Board of Supervisors last month. She spoke about the priceless scenic value of the heritage oaks to the Frazier Mountain Communities.

“We live here because we like the nature that surrounds us; we don’t want this place to look like downtown Bakersfield,” Frazier Park architect Max Williams said as he looked at the paved parking lot where the oaks once stood.

Assisting in analyzing results of a public records request by The Mountain Enterprise, Williams helped determine that the contractor ignored detailed instructions in their $4.6 million contract to protect the heritage oaks before beginning construction.

Supervising Kern County Construction Services Department personnel appear to have done nothing for eight months to hold the low-bid contractor accountable to their oak protection section of their contract, despite repeated promises by Kern County personnel, including Director of Libraries Diane Duquette, that the heritage oaks would be preserved as a cherished part of the library landscaping.

No action has been announced to hold the contractor, Tilton Pacific Construction, Inc., financially accountable for the apparent errors and omissions that led to the death of Frazier Park’s heritage trees.

Community requests for an oak ordinance were called, mailed, emailed and faxed to Supervior Ray Watson’s office, Robredo says.

On September 28 Mel Frykholm and his wife heard the sound of chainsaws. They ran outside to see workers shaving away the oak woodland next to their house, which sits on a mesa above the Oakridge Mobile Home Park.

The Frykholms began frantically calling anyone they could think of, asking, “Aren’t any permits required? No one gave us any notice they were going to do this. They are taking out our watershed. They will bring the ridge down.” The fire department responded. The supervisors’s office said, “It is private property.” But the Frykholms kept making calls, and the next day the chainsaws were quiet. A spokesperson for the mobile home park’s owner said, in essence, that it was all a mistake, that they only intended to remove a fire hazard.

On Friday, Oct. 8 Kern County Planning and Community Development Director Lorelei Oviatt sent a letter saying that discussion of an oak tree provision will come before the board of supervisors on November 30.

The letter is addressed to members of Supervisor Ray Watson’s appointed Municipal Advisory Council (MAC). The letter asks them to comment regarding an oak tree ordinance for Kern County.

Next week, we’ll examine the letter and comments from community members about it. The letter may be viewed here. Your emailed comments to the editor are welcomed.

This is part of the October 15, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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