City raises stink over Plaza 'poop' trees

Call it: #treetoo. Because that may be how female ginkgo trees are feeling this week in Sonoma, after finding themselves out on a limb, while their male counterparts remained the apple of local arborists’ eyes.

The fate of a trio of female ginkgo trees at the northeast corner of the Plaza was before the Sonoma City Council on Monday, at the behest of city officials who described the native Asian timbers as malodorous safety hazards.

“During the fruit-drop season,” explained Sonoma Public Works Director Colleen Ferguson, “(the trees) are a problem for public works – slippery, slimy and they come back to the (public works) yard” soaked in noxious fruit droppings.

Added Ferguson: “The fruit pits are like ball bearings” and their “notoriously unpleasant odor” is “similar to vomit or dog poop.”

The ginkgo tree, or Ginkgo biloba, is native to China – and fossils of the species have been found dating back as far as 270 million years. Known for their lush canopies, ginkgos feature deep green leaves in summer, turning a vibrant golden color in the autumn. Ginkgos are dioecious – meaning they have separate sexes.

The males produce small cones, while the females develop fleshy, brown seeds in the fall which, after falling to the ground, soon develop an odor most often compared to vomit or bile, though a simple internet search also finds ready descriptions of dirty gym socks, parmesan cheese and rancid butter. Some botanists have suggested the plant’s fruit evolved to feature a perfume that would attract hungry dinosaurs to its banquet – to chow down on the pungent berries and then discharge the seeds across the Cretaceous-period earth.

Ginkgos are renowned for their longevity. One tenacious specimen from Japan was thought to have been nearly 1,000 years old when it finally fell in 2010. Six ginkgos within a mile of Hiroshima were among the only plants or animals to have survived the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Japan in 1945.

In a rare moment of council-meeting show-and-smell, Ferguson passed around a bucket of dropped Ginkgo fruit for room-wide wafting – eliciting looks of revulsion from bucket-sniffing residents and city officials alike.

Ferguson said any tree removal would be replaced with newly planted trees of a different species; the two male ginkgos on the Plaza would remain. If any trees were to be cut down, their removal would have to be soon – bird nesting season runs mid-February through August, and the presence of nesting birds would silence the chain saws until the fall, said Ferguson.

According to Sonoma City Councilmember Gary Edwards, one of the ginkgo trees in question was planted decades ago by the late Bob Cannard, who is credited with Johnny-Appleseeding several of the Plaza’s diverse selection of trees.

Councilmember Amy Harrington elicited pre-meeting Facebook feedback on the tree troubles and received dozens of responses in favor of sparing the ginkgos – with many folks flabbergasted at the notion that there isn’t a way to mitigate the adverse effects of the trees outside of their removal.

However, several public commenters at the Jan. 29 meeting agreed with the city Tree Committee, which had previously voted 2-0 – with committee member Ken Brown absent – to remove the trees. According to Ferguson, one tree committee member observed that the “trees have been a problem for 40 years.” Brown, for his part, was at the Monday meeting and said he would have voted to spare the trees if he had been in attendance at the committee meeting.

Sonoma resident Matt Metzler framed the tree as a “botanical oddity.”

“If it turns out to be female, you’ve got to cut it down,” said Metzler. “I thought it was common knowledge you only let male ginkgo trees reach adulthood.”

Resident Patty Defern said she walks the Plaza daily and held out hopes for an ulterior solution.

“What I noticed is that it is not taken care of every day,” said Defern, about public works upkeep. “Maybe pruning them higher or away from the sidewalks” would work.

Harrington, too, said she was “taken aback” at the suggestion to remove trees so quickly, recommending public works take a year to try and mitigate the situation by other means before “chopping down trees on the Plaza.”

In addressing the possibility of using sprays to temper the rank fruit, Ferguson said such methods can help, but won’t solve the problem.

Multiple members of the public echoed Ferguson’s doubts about sprays.

Shazandra Fox, who said she has worked in the horticulture industry, said, “Frankly, putting up a net, cleaning them up, spraying them isn’t really an option.” She, too, recommended replacing the female ginkgos with males.

Council members were divided as to the fate of the trees. Councilmember David Cook joined Harrington in opposing the tree removal, recalling the issue of the “poop tree” had come to the Tree Committee four years ago and he’d prefer to abide by that committee’s earlier decision to keep the trees.

Councilmembers Edwards and Rachel Hundley were open to removing one or two of the smaller female ginkgos closest to the street which, Edwards pointed out, seem to be suffering under the canopy of the largest specimen.

Mayor Madolyn Agrimonti, meanwhile, was swayed by the fact that the trees aren’t in their natural habitat, but admitted she rarely made it to that corner of the Plaza.

“I (prefer to) just sit with Gen. Vallejo and contemplate my future,” she said of the nearby statue and bench.

In the end the council voted 3-2 to remove one tree – the smallest ginkgo nearest the street.

Hundley framed it as a safety issue: “The fact is we love trees. But we love humans more than trees.”

Email jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.