Bolinas residents clashed over the proposed clearing of a eucalyptus grove at last week’s regular meeting of the utility district board. A volunteer group called the Bolinas Eucalyptus Project had sought the board’s support for the project, which requires the backing of the district before it can apply for a coastal permit. Despite opposition by some residents who hope to preserve at least some of the trees as habitat for monarch butterflies, the board voted unanimously to support the project.
“Just like humans, trees get older, unhealthy and dangerous,” board member Andrew Alexander Green said. “BCPUD has to consider its long-term goals. Maintenance is expensive and impractical from a financial standpoint. Health and safety—to me, that’s the number-one thing.”
The Bolinas Community Public Utility District, which owns a majority of the 12-acre grove surrounding the intersection of Olema-Bolinas and Mesa Roads, is facing a pair of claims filed by two residents who were injured when one of the trees in the grove fell on their truck during an atmospheric river last January.
Their claims cite an arborist’s report from 2021 that was commissioned by an earlier iteration of the Bolinas Eucalyptus Project. The report recommended that the entire grove be cleared and the area converted to native plant habitat. “Eucalyptus is not meant to reach a late seral stage of old growth,” arborist Ben Anderson wrote. “A failure of a single tree over the road could spark a fire and cut off the primary access to the mesa.”
Another report published in March by Inverness forester Tom Gaman found that 30 percent of the trees in the grove were in poor condition, and only 27 percent were in good condition. “When blue gums blow down, the results can be catastrophic,” Mr. Gaman wrote. “Thinning is not the answer to improve health as this stand is highly exposed and vulnerable to severe and increasing wind disturbances.”
Clearing the grove has significant community support, but the issue is more complicated for those concerned about plummeting monarch butterfly populations.
For the second year in a row, Bolinas was an important overwintering site for monarchs in California. Last winter, Mia Monroe, a co-founder of the local monarch count, tallied 2,000 monarchs in Bolinas, 20 percent of which were found at the targeted grove.
Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, said the grove was in the top 25 percent of sites in the state this year. “We do not have the science to recreate a habitat from scratch,” she said. But she added that she empathized “with addressing community and safety. No one wins if that grove catastrophically burns.”
Ole Schell, a Bolinas resident who has built a monarch sanctuary on his property, spoke vehemently against the plan last week, pointing out that monarchs numbered in the millions in the 1980s before their decline. He argued for felling the most problematic roadside trees but keeping the area where monarchs overwinter.
Jon Cozzi, an arborist and volunteer for the project, said such a compromise was not possible. Mr. Anderson reported that “because these trees do not have the required structure to be stable without surrounding trees, and they will be toppled by normal winds in the area.”
As the discussion heated up, Jack Siedman, the utility district’s board president, asked whether they should hold off on a vote until the project organizers and monarch activists devise a solution that would “work for everybody’s concerns.”
“Why not do that?” asked Mr. Schell, throwing up his hands.
“Because winter is coming and a tree fell on me,” said a tearful Annabelle Scott, who was injured alongside her partner, Elias Rose, when a eucalyptus struck their truck while they were driving during a storm last January. Mr. Rose suffered a concussion and fractured vertebra, and both are still recovering from the accident.
“There is no more time,” Ms. Scott said. “I sat next to my partner, who I thought was dead. [The trees] have to go. It can’t happen to anyone else.”
In June, Ms. Scott and Mr. Rose filed claims against the utility district, specifying damages worth more than $10,000. Both Ms. Scott and the general manager of the utility district have declined to comment on the claims.
The project’s organizers now hope to get the endorsement of the local fire department. Jonna Alexander Green, one of the project’s lead volunteers, said gaining the support of both the utility district and the fire department will ease the coastal permit application process.