Trees fall at Sonoma Plaza, Valley Cemetery

Local arbors no match for weather, root ball|

The heavy rainfall that has struck the North Coast this winter claimed another victim on Friday morning – a 65-foot Western catalpa tree crashed to the ground about 10:40 a.m. on the north side of the Sonoma Plaza. Less than 24 hours later, another tree came down in Sonoma, at the Valley Cemetery on MacArthur, damaging a water main as it did and partially flooding the cemetery.

City work crews responded quickly to each incident, said Public Works Director Dan Takasugi.

In the case of the Plaza catalpa, crews were made aware of the situation early in Friday morning when someone noticed the tree’s root ball had lifted about four inches out of the sodden ground.

They sectioned off the area with yellow “caution” tape, then the crew gave the tree a push to send it in a controlled fall away from any obstacles. It dropped by design between a Southern magnolia and Canary fan palm, directly behind City Hall.

Dean Merrill, the city’s street supervisor, oversaw the felling of the tree.

“The tree was in danger of falling over, and we didn’t want anybody to get hurt,” he said.

By the time the crew took action, he said, the root ball had risen about a foot above ground level.

“Based on the size, it was probably close to its life expectancy,” said Takasugi.

All the hard work of the city’s landscaping crew was appreciated by City Councilman Gary Edwards, who showed up with coffee and pastries for the crew while they were breaking up the fallen catalpa.

“Those guys are great. They jumped right on it – it was a dangerous situation and they took care of it,” said Edwards. “I knew they would have no time to go out – it was cold and rainy and I said, maybe I could go over to the Basque and get them some coffee. Cookies too, to give them a little energy.”

With first light on Saturday morning a very tall, rangy valley oak came down in the Valley Cemetery, splitting as it did so and uprooting a water main passing beneath. It fell on several monuments but damage was minor, though much of the cemetery was temporarily flooded.

Takasugi said these weren’t the only arboreal events in the city this week. “Yesterday, Public Works had to remove the leaning red oak tree that was just north of the Visitors Bureau, in the interest of public safety,” he reported on Friday.

No one was hurt in either tree incident.

Email Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

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