Trees

Sometimes the most unique getaways are off the beaten path a bit, and take a little extra effort to find. Such is the case with the Lazy Z Resort, a place well known by the families who have been visiting the resort since it opened in the 1940?s, but not such a household name for most people. The Lazy Z is located in the Sierra Nevada foothills ? Mark Twain country ? where interestingly enough a small town was named after a couple of well-known writers: Twain and Brett Harte. The town is called Twain Harte and it?

What about all the fish-killin', water-guzzlin' trees? This could be bigger than Godzilla! The shadowy villains cast their death rays on sidewalks and slither down drains to choke the living daylights out of the fish in the seas! And they take all our water with them! How long has this been going on? Let's ask Charlie Tuna. Remember Charlie Tuna? He was the expert on everything, except credibility. "Hey Charlie, what's up with fish-killin', water-guzzlin' trees?"

The Assistance League of Glendale gathered friends and family for the 31st annual Festival of Trees fundraiser on Dec. 3. The annual fundraiser was held this year at the Hilton Burbank Airport & Convention Center with a theme of "Santa Baby," which comes from the playful tune sung by Marilyn Monroe. What makes this fundraiser unique is that all the members decorate Christmas trees or wreathes in a theme and they are given away to those who are lucky enough to have their tickets drawn.

GLENDALE — Lucy Muñoz and her 5-year-old son, Logan Cantu, dug a deep hole in a dirt pile for a young tree Saturday that was planted along with 14 other trees at Franklin Elementary School. She adopted the tree and will assume the responsibility of watering it every week at the school. “This is really important for the children so they learn how to take care of their environment and how to take care of the trees,” Muñoz said. The school’s Green Team and the nonprofit organization Tree People organized the tree planting at the school in an effort to bring more shade to the mostly concrete campus.

NORTH GLENDALE — When Ann Collard and her husband hired a private contractor in August to trim the trees around their home, they could not have imagined the bill would balloon to nearly $350,000. Costs soared when a city urban forester cited the Collards for illegally pruning 13 trees — including five that are reportedly on city-owned land — without a permit. And under the city’s new Indigenous Tree Ordinance, the fine was equal to twice the value of the damaged trees.

LOS ANGELES — The city of Glendale received court approval Monday to do much-needed maintenance work at Grand View Memorial Park — clearing the way for the cemetery's eventual reopening. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr handed down the court order Monday allowing the city to remove or prune dried-out trees on the cemetery grounds to reduce the risk of fire and liability if a limb were to fall on a visitor. The city decided on June 26 to do the work before renewing limited visitation days at the cemetery.

Glendale may have escaped much of the mayhem and destruction seen in neighboring cities after Wednesday night's powerful Santa Ana winds, but the toll was still extensive. At least 30 large trees were toppled throughout the city, smashing cars and bringing down power lines that caused isolated power outages, forcing six Crescenta Valley schools to hold classes without electricity. No injuries were reported, but officials warned that it would take some time to clear debris and remove fallen trees.

Back in 1924, when Alexander Nibley and his partners began planning a new development, they targeted people who were, even then, seeking to leave the increasingly crowded city for a place with more greenery and less noise and congestion. An early Nibley brochure read, "Rossmoyne is within a matter of minutes from Los Angeles, yet it might be in another world," as noted in an article "An Historic Neighborhood" included in the Rossmoyne Historic District application. The new residential development was to be on land previously owned by Erskine Mayo Ross.

The trees! Where have all the trees gone? Gone to tree grinders, everyone. Beautiful trees along the Golden State (5) Freeway north and south through Burbank are being systematically destroyed and for what? A car pool lane on the freeway! What a waste. No one uses car pool lanes and those who do use them as race tracks. So, the beautiful trees and shrubs are being destroyed never to be replaced. Oh, we might get walls with designs on them and eventually graffiti, but no trees.

In late 1931, at the height of the Great Depression, Tom Follis' parents, Donald and Lucile, purchased a lot on Hollister Terrace in east Glenoaks Canyon, about 100 yards from Glenoaks Park. "My parents cleared weeds and brush in preparation for the construction of a custom house," recalled Follis, who now lives in Oxnard. "While burning piles of weeds, the smoke drifted over my dad and the next day he was covered with itching poison oak that had been hidden in the weeds. "A building contractor, Mr. Dutton, was hired and several months later our family moved into the lovely tile-roofed, Spanish-style, stucco house that was our home for many years.