Point Reyes Light- November 25, 1998

Tree-cutting ordinance would exclude ranches

County planning commissioners last week recommended that Marin supervisors adopt a revised tree-cutting ordinance designed to prevent indiscriminate felling of native species while maintaining homeowners' rights to landscape their property.

The stated purposes of the tree ordinance, which is required under the 1994 Countywide Plan, are to reduce air pollution, stabilize soil, control drainage, provide wildlife habitat, and protect or improve property values.

On undeveloped property, the draft ordinance prohibits removing without a permit any one of more than 30 native tree species - including alders, oaks, cypresses, redwoods, willows, and yews - with trunks measuring more than 10 inches in diameter at their base.

On developed property, the ordinance requires a county permit for removing more than five native trees per year with trunks larger than ten inches in diameter. The ordinance would also protect any tree that was either a required planting or one to be preserved as a condition of the county approving a building permit.

Exempt from the proposed ordinance is any tree that poses a fire hazard, or threatens public safety, or is so unhealthy that it is unlikely to survive. Also exempt are trees grown for commercial purposes, trees on agricultural property, and trees that interfere with public utilities or damage building foundations, retaining walls, patios, and driveways.

On lands used for agriculture, the draft ordinance recommends only that property owners follow oak-woodland guidelines issued by the University of California Cooperative Extension. No restrictions are placed on tree trimming or pruning.

Planning commissioner Ross Herbertson said this week the draft ordinance strikes a balance between preserving native species from development and protecting homeowners from cumbersome county regulations.

"The ordinance, as proposed, does a fair job of allowing homeowners to do what they need to do to take care of their property," he said. "One of the driving intentions was to prevent developers from coming in and clear-cutting native trees to prepare for developing. It was [written] to protect trees in that regard."

But Anne Tennyson of Inverness said the ordinance is unnecessary in West Marin. The document is flawed in that it proposes to protect wildlife while suggesting that larger, older trees are more important than younger, smaller ones. Wildlife, she noted, needs a range of native species of all ages. "It gets at what they wanted," she said, "but it's bad legislation."

Another of the ordinance's detractors, Wiebke Buxbaum of Point Reyes Station, said the proposed tree law offers no specific reason for exempting agricultural land, and fails to distinguish between agricultural and mixed-use parcels.

Like Tennyson, Buxbaum said the draft ordinance presented to planning commissioners last week was imperfect at best.

The proposed law has not yet been set for a hearing before county supervisors, said county planner Kim Hansen. Supervisors would set whatever permit fees would be required.

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