The Resident

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Residents convince city to save oak

By Mary Gottschalk

When George Pope Morris was concerned about an oak tree being chopped down, he wrote the impassioned poem Woodman, Spare That Tree in 1837. It was set to music in 1853, becoming what many consider the first American environmentalist song.

Now, 171 years later, Dan Cochran used e-mail to protest the possible destruction of one of his three beloved cork oak trees along Sequoia Avenue at Martin Avenue.

Cochran's plea wasn't quite as poetic, but it was equally impassioned, and it did the trick.

It started when Cochran's wife, Camilla, noticed a pink "Tree Removal Request" notice tacked onto their tree at the corner of Sequoia and Martin. The notice, posted on Sept. 5, cited "tree hanging over street" and "sidewalk damage" as the reasons for the request.

On Sept. 6, Cochran sent a letter of protest to Ralph Mize, San Jose city arborist, requesting a formal hearing before any action could be taken. He also e-mailed copies to officers of the Shasta Hanchett Park Neighborhood Association, History San Jose, San Jose City Council District 6 offices, Our City Forest and the media.

Cochran doesn't dispute that the tree hangs out over Sequoia. It's obvious to anyone who looks at it.

However, he is quick to say, "The only people who are inconvenienced by it are speeders. That tree has never been hit."

The Cochrans have lived in their home for more than 25 years and have invested a good deal of money to keep their three cork oaks healthy.

Every three years, Cochran says he spends $2,000 having the trees professionally trimmed, and he also makes a point of obtaining a permit to do so.

Additionally, he says, every three years he pays to have any sidewalk repairs made that are necessitated by the trees' root systems.

At present, there is no sign of any sidewalk damage.

Based on an old photo, believed to have been taken between 1880 and 1896 of the three trees adjacent to a wooden stable that was part of Agricultural Park, Cochran estimates the trees are now at least 135 years old.

Agricultural Park was an enormous playground in the late 1800s that stretched from what is now Race Street to beyond Lincoln High School. It included a horse race track, a bicycle velodrome, picnic grounds, playing fields and more than 2,600 trees.

When John McLaren, designer of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, designed the Hanchett Residence Park in 1905, he specified a single tree variety for each street. Martin got palm trees, Shasta Avenue got sycamores, and Cochran believes the reason cork oaks were specified for Sequoia was in deference to the three already there.

Cochran says this is the second time the one tree has been targeted for removal.

More than 20 years ago, he says it was only the intervention of his wife that kept a city crew from cutting it down.

At that time, the previous city arborist intervened.

Now Mize has stepped in and after a visit to the tree on Sept. 11, he personally removed the notice.

Instead of removing the tree, which is in violation of San Jose's ordinance requiring 13 feet of vertical clearance from the curb outward, Mize is recommending that the street be reconfigured.

"We're going to put a new edge on the pavement delineation, which will narrow the road at that point so the trunk isn't hanging into the road," Mize says.

"The intersection is configured in such a way that we can narrow the street, leave the tree as it is and take out one parking space you couldn't park in anyway.

"In other locations the tree would have had to be removed."

The change will also protect the tree from further damage.

"There are evidences of where large trucks have brushed up against the trunk. There are wounds at various points along the trunk," Mize says.

While Cochran calls his cork oaks "an incredibly rare species in the Bay Area," Mize differs.

"I wouldn't call them rare," he says. "They are somewhat unusual.

"They are native to Portugal and Spain, so they are very well adapted and suited to a Mediterranean climate like we have, with no rain all summer long. We have them [in San Jose], and we've been planting more of them."

Cochran has nominated the three cork oaks for inclusion on San Jose's Heritage Tree list.

Mize says he welcomes the nomination.

"We update the Heritage list from time to time and we'll certainly have his nomination, and I will certainly support that," Mize says.

"Those are some of the largest corks I'm aware of in San Jose, and they are probably some of the oldest."