Good grief! This story by itself, to hear about these stately old palms disappearing, is sad enough. But the last part of it is enough to turn your stomach:

>"They don't provide the same benefits as the other, more leafy trees," says Paula Daniels, a Board of Public Works commissioner who is leading the planting effort.

Their tall, bare trunks make them inferior when it comes to providing shade, Daniels said, and some experts believe their scant leaves make them less effective at trapping air pollution. >

Isn't this just soooo typical of the sort of 'politcally correct' thinking you find so prevalent on the Left Coast, and especially L.A.? (no offense intended to anyone who lives on the West Coast). If something doesn't provide some sort of 'enviromental benefit', off to the trash heap it goes. Any living plant produces oxygen, and therefore is a benefit to the enviroment, with the exception for any poisonous and/or invasive species. Funny they would mention pollution......why don't they try to eliminate that first? Get some of those ultra-rich stars to get rid of their big gas-guzzling SUV's and limousines. Bring back cable cars and more mass transportation. Folks like Jay Leno would have a heart attack.....he owns more than 80 cars (most of them old classics) and even an old fire truck.

Hey.....there's an idea. Get rid of all those old antique cars people drive. Never mind that they're valuable and pretty to look at it (just like the old palms), they're not doing anything "beneficial" for the enviroment... ; (

I posted an article here a few months about Miami removing Royal palms from Biscayne Bd. because of lack of shade for pedestrians, and the dangers of fronds falling from 50+ feet up. The mature Royal palms were essentially gray-as-cement poles at pedestrian level.

Like most/all of the Phoenix genus, CIDP is susceptible to LY. I was surprised that the disease killing them in LA is a fungus.

It looks like all of us are living in hot climates--I lived in Tampa and Palm Bay, Florida for the last five years and the heat we experience during the summer really makes me wish that we did have more shade trees!

Everyone, when they move in, plants Queen, Coconut, and Christmas/Adonidia palms...then it's 100 degrees for two months and they realize how much their AC has to work! No wonder...if you plant Live Oak, Southern Magnolia, East Palatka Holly, Weeping Yaupon Holly, and a host of others we'd all have cooler summers!

I think that LA is doing the right thing...they're thinking of the people who LIVE on those streets--not the ones who visit and then leave when summer comes.

It's time that Florida, California and other such states (where the majority of the population are no longer just "snow birds") waken up and plant SHADE trees.

While I think we all think of certain places with palm trees we must all remember how it is to have to walk those streets everyday without real shade.

Mark

That's a great point about shade....the more of it you have, the less your AC has to work, no doubt about it. I've been debating for quite some time whether to get rid of some the pines around my home. They're such a mess, and the first to suffer damage if there's an ice storm. But the shade they provide is nice.

But shade trees have their own issues. Anyone who thinks palms are messy has never had to rake up a truckload of leaves from just one or two oak or poplar trees. I've seen storm drains clogged with leaves. Big shade trees attract more birds, which is a mixed blessing, since some species are definitely undesirable (sparrows, starlings). You then have the sidewalks, cars, and occasionally, pedestrians, covered with bird droppings. And don't even get me started on the squirrels and various leaf-munching bugs......

It's a tough call to make either way. At least L.A. is making the commitment to plant a lot of trees. What bothers me is who made the decision as to which trees to plant. The decision should be up to the voters, not a handful of bureaucrats who might have some political or enviromental axe to grind. It should be up to the millions who live and work in the city. It's their taxes who make the trees possible to begin with. Vote on it. If the palm lovers lose, they can still say they at least had a voice in the matter.

I live in South West Australia and I think they should be planting lots more palm trees around here. They dont take up much room, are relitavely water efficient and they look so good! I was horrified when they removed all the lovely washingtonias growing along the foreshore here. But everywhere I look I see Norfolk Island pines. Theyre ok here and there but they're absolutely everywhere! They just suck up tonnes of water and kill anything trying to grow under them and look shocking when planted too close to eachother as is often the case. I hope these aren't on the list of trees promotes in LA. I just don't understand why they're so popular, especially when morteon bay figs look so much better and actually produce a lot of shade as well as fruit which the birds just love but yes of course, natives are the way to go, especially peppermint trees and sheoaks.

I'm all in favor of palms! I love them! In my own yard I had about 12 different species and I adored them. I especially love Bismarck, Queen (even though they are one of the first ones to cave into hurricanes), Bottle, Needle, Coconut and Triangle.

But you definitely regret only planting palms in your western exposure front yard during the summer when you walk outside into the full sun and 100 PLUS temperatures and it's only 10 am.

I think that there should be balance to tree plantings. Don't plant too many of the same because if disease comes (i.e: dutch elm disease, sudden oak death syndrome--common in California and coming to Florida now--crab apple blight, etc) then you have millions of trees gone. Plant variety. Plant different species. Plant some palms, if you are in the right climate, and plant some deciduous.

It's just like food--nothing in excess. A little bit of everything and we're all OK.

:)
Mark

Mark,

You hit the nail on the head.........variety and lots of it. I saw a thing on PBS the other day where a group of researchers is trying to bring back the American Chestnut. Man, wouldn't that be cool?

It's just so hard to think of cities like Miami and L.A. without thinking of all those palms. I hope they never go away entirely.

The article talked only about CIDP having the fatal fungus.

While losing/cutting the CIDPs, esp the very old, maje ones, would leave huge holes in many landscapes and city scapes, I figure this article sounds a lot worse that it really is.

The shade issue is real, but there's plenty of space where shade trees could be put in with out cutting down the palms.