Orcutt resident Sarah Schwab isn’t a typical high school student. Unlike most teenagers, who may spend weeks planning a killer birthday party, Schwab considered spending a good chunk of her special day—Sept. 28—advocating for 3,200 coast live oak trees at a planning and development workshop in Solvang.
Schwab co-founded the Tree Amigos of Orcutt, a nonprofit environmental and leadership organization, along with her younger sister Anna on Arbor Day 2007.
Since then, the Schwab sisters have acted as a voice for Central Coast oak trees, attending dozens of local government meetings to ensure the region’s trees are protected and preserved. Most notably, the girls collected more than 1,000 signatures petitioning the development of Key Site 11, an open space lot on the corner of Clark Avenue and Orcutt Road. The Schwabs proposed instead that the space be turned into a commemorative oak grove.
Now, with that development stalled by the California Department of Fish and Game for testing, and Anna attending school on the East Coast, Sarah is focusing her tree-saving efforts on the Los Flores Ranch Landfill project.
Developed by the city of Santa Maria, the project proposes the construction of a waste disposal site on approximately 600 acres in the Solomon Hills off Highway 101. Santa Maria leaders currently see Los Flores Ranch as the most favorable site for the facility. If approved, it would act as the city’s main landfill for up to 90 years.
To make the landfill a reality, however, the city estimates in an environmental impact report that developers will have to remove approximately 3,200 mature coast live oak trees from the property. In an attempt to mitigate the impact, the city has stated in the report it will replace trees at a 2:1 ratio.
That’s what has Schwab concerned.
“I don’t have a huge problem with the dump. If you need a landfill, you need a landfill,” Schwab told the Sun. “But I want to make sure the city is fulfilling all the requirements necessary to preserve and restore the environment they’re ultimately destroying.”
Schwab said she thinks the city should adhere to Santa Barbara County’s deciduous oak tree protection and regeneration ordinance, which requires trees be replaced at a 10:1 ratio.
According to project documents, the city plans to claim “interagency immunity.” Under government code, the city isn’t legally bound to the county’s regulations because it bought and annexed the land several years ago.
A 10:1 ratio, Schwab said, would be much more beneficial for the trees and most likely more successful for the city.
“Oak trees are very hard to plant, and they usually have a low survival rate,” she said, referencing a study done by UC Santa Barbara.
The study found, based on a replanting done in the 1980s, only about 10 percent of oak trees planted ended up surviving.
Project supervisors, however, believe trees planted at Los Flores Ranch will have a better chance, even at a 2:1 ratio.
“We anticipate all the trees to survive, and we’ll replace the ones that don’t,” said Steve Kahn, a utilities engineer with the city.
Unlike at the county level, Kahn said, the city will be caring for the trees for up to seven years after each planting.
“We’re going to be nurturing and caring for them,” he said. “They’re going to have irrigation, and a biologist monitoring their growth.”
The county has a volunteer replanting model that provides care guidelines to growers. Under that model, growers have reported anywhere from a 50 to 95 percent survival rate, according to Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner Bill Gillette.
“If the care is done right, you can get even more,” Gillette said.
However, he said the 2:1 ratio is “a number you typically don’t see” in counties throughout the state.
“I find it’s better to work on a regional basis and use the county’s ordinance as a guideline,” Gillette said. “But since the city owns the property, it can do something outside the ordinance.”
Utilities engineer Kahn said he doesn’t foresee the ratio being a problem.
“I don’t want to focus on a number, but I will do everything possible to replace the urban forest population,” Kahn said.
Currently, the city is in the process of responding to the public’s recent comments on the project’s environmental impact report. Based on those comments, Kahn said, the city is changing the design of the project to lessen the number of oaks impacted by the development. He said the exact number of trees involved has yet to be decided.
Until the plan is finally hammered out, Kahn said the city is asking members of the public, like Schwab, to get involved in the project’s mitigation plan, which will determine where and how the trees are planted.
Contact News Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2009.
