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CHIP JOHNSON -- Avenue's Stately Elms Facing Ax
Tree-lined Berkeley street hit by disease

CHIP JOHNSON

 

BERKELEY

 

North Berkeley resident Joe Campbell was surprised to find a city worker painting a large red circle on the graceful elm tree that shades his front yard as he walked out the front door one day in August.

``What in the world was he doing?'' Campbell wondered. The worker told him that this tree, along with most of the the others that line the 900 block of Fresno Avenue, would soon be gone. They had the plague. Dutch elm disease, a sure-fire killer.

That news sucker-punched Campbell and his neighbors, who were never notified of the city's plans. Some months earlier, when his wife, Cynthia, noticed a leafless tree next door to the couple's home, she thought a street repaving project had damaged a root, Campbell said.

So Campbell, a computer consultant and author with irrepressible curiosity, set out to find who or what killed those trees, the ones that brought him to this street between Solano and Marin avenues.

``Like most of the residents of Fresno (Avenue), these wonderful elms were part of my decision to live here,'' Campbell said. ``While looking for a home 25 years ago, the instant I turned down the street and saw the trees, I bought the house unseen. And for all those years, the trees have been like old friends -- strong and beautiful and always there.''

Early on, he suspected that a tree-trimming job done in April near power lines owned by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. may have had something to do with it. Six months later, he still suspects it.

Unsanitary cutting practices -- trimmers failing to clean their equipment from one job to the next -- are one way trees contract the disease. European bark beetle bugs are also major carriers of the fungus.

Campbell can't be sure dirty equipment was to blame, but he says that the trees were just fine until about six months after the trimmers came through. A licensed arborist -- Torrey Young of Oakland--brought in by the neighbors couldn't pinpoint the source of the disease, but he described the job done on the stately trees as a ``brutal pruning.''

Joe Franscella, a PG&E spokesman, denies that the utility was to blame, saying all its tree-trimming contractors use safe practices.

``We're not responsible for the spread of Dutch elm there (on Fresno),'' Franscella said. ``Neither is our contractor.'' Still, PG&E has offered its services to help with the removal of the diseased trees.

Rick Edson, a spokesman for Davey Tree, the company that performed the work, said his workers spray chain saws between jobs with a disinfectant similar to Lysol to prevent the spread of disease.

Campbell doesn't believe them.

``I cry at their passing. I've cried many times over this,'' said Campbell, 53. ``I've never been an activist for any cause before, but PG&E's wanton disregard for something so precious and important stirred me to action. And you know what? I never give up.''

I gotta tell ya right here, I've met the guy, and he's not the tree-hugging type.

Early last month, about 44 of the 60 neighborhood residents showed up for a meeting with city officials, including Mayor Shirley Dean, at Campbell's home.

Neighbors laid out their woes and their suspicions, Campbell said, and to its credit, the city listened. City officials had their suspicions, too, but no proof of how the trees had actually contracted the disease. City officials acknowledged the problem on Fresno Avenue but pointed out that other areas of the city have been hard-hit by the disease as well. Each year the city loses about a dozen elms, said Lisa Caronna, acting director of Berkeley's Waterfront and Forestry Department.

Caronna said the city had used John Britton, an ``incredibly well- respected source,'' to conduct its assessments of elms in the city.

So I called him. And he told me that the worst time of the season to prune an elm tree is after March, when the weather gets warm.

``As soon as it starts to warm up, the sap is running and the trees are leafing in, the beetles are flying throughout the spring and summer,'' Britton said.

Is the sap up and running? You betcha, Mr. Britton.

Campbell is scheduled to meet with Berkeley officials tomorrow to find a way to address the situation, whether it means replacing the elms with partially grown trees, planting new ones or dragging PG&E to court to prune a few of its branches.

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