Sonoma Developmental Center palms get the ax

Those stately palm trees lining the drive of the Sonoma Developmental Center will soon be gone, being removed this week by an East Bay tree removal service. Karen Faria, executive director of the Developmental Center, says the trees were afflicted with a fungus spread by woodpeckers, and had to come down. “An arborist inspected them and determined that unfortunately, they are past their life expectancy and are in danger of falling down, posing a safety threat to residents and the public.”

The six California fan palms had been in place for decades, providing a majestic entrance to the Eldridge facility from Arnold Drive. Soaring almost 60 feet high, they lined Harney Circle, the oval meridian in the center of the long driveway approaching the building.

Two of the trees were topped off on Monday, Jan. 26. By midweek three of the trees were gone, and the others in the process of removal by a small crew armed with chain saws and a “cherry-picker” crane to reach the crown. The trees themselves are being felled by the Professional Tree Care Co. of Alameda County, contracted by the SDC.

“They don’t appear to be stressed at all,” said a local resident at the scene. “It’s bizarre.” Arborists note, however, that the trees are not native to the Sonoma Valley, and could have been stressed by freezing nights. The trunks themselves showed “granary holes” from acorn woodpeckers, who drill into the soft wood of palms and other local trees such as valley oaks to store their seeds.

The center is Sonoma Valley’s largest employer with a staff of 1,400. It is a state-run facility with a current patient population of about 450 severely developmentally disabled patients. Initial construction of the facility began in about 1890, and the main building was constructed beginning in 1908. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

The facility faced the withdrawal of federal funding last summer over unresolved allegations of patient abuse and deficient care, and decertified in the fall. The state appealed, and the affected units will be resurveyed on Feb. 18.

Last July a tree limb fell on a car driving through the property, causing extensive damage to the vehicle but leaving the driver, Mark Feinberg of Santa Rosa, uninjured. That tree, however, was an old oak; the spontaneous falling of date palms is rare unless they are severely diseased by fungal rot, but the already-beleaguered SDC is taking no chances.

The wood and trimmings from those six stately palms was removed by Professional Tree Care who said they fully recycle their jobs at their Richmond facility as lumber, mulches and biofuel. According to Faria, shrubs or flowers will be put in place to maintain the esthetics of the main entrance.