Is Santa Barbara obsessed with Eucalyptus tress? (Los Angeles, San Diego: 2015, how much)

[harob11]

I acknowledge this is a completely first world complaint (i'm a perfectionist) and in the grand scheme of things has no importance whatsoever but I can't resist asking: what is with Santa Barbara and it's record number of ugly ass, dried out, scruffy looking Eucalyptus trees and scruffy bushes planted absolutely everywhere? Not so much in the city but outside of the city. You go from a lush little paradise (downtown) full of green trees and plants to a countryside of brown bush and eucalyptus trees absolutely everywhere. You drive north to Goleta or south to Carpenteria and you'd think you were 2500 miles from the Pacific ocean. It's like a tunnel of overgrown, dried out bush cover and Eucalyptus trees everywhere... that or the shoddiest landscaping work I've ever seen...

I went to More Mesa Beach the other day for the first time and I thought there must had been a fire; there were so many dead looking Eucalyptus trees planted along the bluff blocking the views. What kind of dipsh$t decided planting all these would look good? That's almost as bright as building a bike path in Ventura county along the highway, with railing that is the exact height necessary to block the ocean view.

I realize Santa Barbara is anti-Orange County/La Jolla/Santa Monica with their lush, tropical looking manicured coastal parks and gardens (Heisler Park, Palisades Park, Scripps Park) but no one in their right mind can deny they sure look a hell of a lot prettier than a free-for-all of dried out bush and brownish-red Eucalyptus trees all over the place. I'm down in Newport right now, driving around and everything is so nicely landscaped, semi-tropical looking and green.

Am I out to lunch in thinking Butterfly Beach and Alice Keck park are much more beautiful with their variety of manicured lush palms, plants and flowers in comparison?

At the end of the day I'm just kind of curious why scrub bush and Eucalyptus dominate every other area around here so much.

[Ruth4Truth]

We get it--you don't really like Santa Barbara all that much. You should be writing letters to the editor of your local paper, where it might do some good, instead of ranting on an internet forum.

[harob11]

Actually I really love Santa Barbara. Eucalyptus trees not so much.
And give me a break... it's 2015... who doesn't rant on Internet forums these days
Thanks for your input though.

[sourdough]

How the Eucalyptus Came to California

[tstieber]

Originally Posted by harob11

I acknowledge this is a completely first world complaint (i'm a perfectionist) and in the grand scheme of things has no importance whatsoever but I can't resist asking: what is with Santa Barbara and it's record number of ugly ass, dried out, scruffy looking Eucalyptus trees and scruffy bushes planted absolutely everywhere? Not so much in the city but outside of the city. You go from a lush little paradise (downtown) full of green trees and plants to a countryside of brown bush and eucalyptus trees absolutely everywhere. You drive north to Goleta or south to Carpenteria and you'd think you were 2500 miles from the Pacific ocean. It's like a tunnel of overgrown, dried out bush cover and Eucalyptus trees everywhere... that or the shoddiest landscaping work I've ever seen...

I went to More Mesa Beach the other day for the first time and I thought there must had been a fire; there were so many dead looking Eucalyptus trees planted along the bluff blocking the views. What kind of dipsh$t decided planting all these would look good? That's almost as bright as building a bike path in Ventura county along the highway, with railing that is the exact height necessary to block the ocean view.

I realize Santa Barbara is anti-Orange County/La Jolla/Santa Monica with their lush, tropical looking manicured coastal parks and gardens (Heisler Park, Palisades Park, Scripps Park) but no one in their right mind can deny they sure look a hell of a lot prettier than a free-for-all of dried out bush and brownish-red Eucalyptus trees all over the place. I'm down in Newport right now, driving around and everything is so nicely landscaped, semi-tropical looking and green.

Am I out to lunch in thinking Butterfly Beach and Alice Keck park are much more beautiful with their variety of manicured lush palms, plants and flowers in comparison?

At the end of the day I'm just kind of curious why scrub bush and Eucalyptus dominate every other area around here so much.

eucalyptus trees should be lush and green as well. That's part of the reason they were planted. If they are looking brown and dry, then most likely they are affected by some of the pests and beetles that have infiltrated California in the past 20 years and are stressing out the trees. Especially during droughts, trees are more susceptible to pests and are not as strong to fend them off. So I believe this is part of what you are seeing. if these trees had more water again, then they might recover.

[BeauCharles]

Some Eucalyptus have naturalized in California. Some communities consider them invasive pests, but I don't really mind them. It would strange to not see them in this state.

[Wanderin Poet]

Eucalyptus were often used as wind screens in the past along highways and freeways. Some varieties of the euc are drought tolerant and were probably chosen for that reason.

Without water from the Colorado River and Owens Valley, you might as well be 2500 miles from the Pacific because without importing water from outside sources that population would not be supported.

[DriveNotCommute]

Originally Posted by harob11

Actually I really love Santa Barbara. Eucalyptus trees not so much.
And give me a break... it's 2015... who doesn't rant on Internet forums these days
Thanks for your input though.

I always thought it was a '60s and '70s thing. Eucalyptus trees were planted everywhere and I saw them in schools and older residential neighborhoods that were built during that time. I noticed that they are getting cut down much more often lately. Usually it's to make way for new development and there aren't any new Eucalyptus being planted to replace them.

Doing some digging, I guess the actual history is much longer than I imagined. Seems like the short answer is that a long time ago, people thought they could make money on Eucalyptus trees in California.

Who Eucalyptized Southern California?[kcet.org] (May 2012)
KCET's summary of the history of Eucalyptus trees in California going back to 1865. Seems like part of the reason involved business.

How the Eucalyptus Came to California ~ A Cautionary Tale [independent.com] (Jan 2011)
The Santa Barbara Independent's article notes that it is an invasive species and also has an overview going back to the 1800s.

Death of a Million Trees [milliontrees.me] (Jan 2014)
This blog reviews a book about the history of the Eucalyptus in California. The site itself seems to be one that is against cutting down Eucalyptus trees in the SF Bay Area but also supports not planting any new ones.

Eucalyptus trees have deep roots in California's history [utsandiego.com] (Aug 2008)
An old article from the San Diego Union-Tribune. It adds some perspective from San Diego's point of view. I also liked that it came out of their archives, the site interface is the old one that they first used in the early 2000s before wide screen monitors became common.

[Ruth4Truth]

Eucalyptus is very high in sap content, and contributed to the severity of the Berkeley/Oakland firestorm in the 90's. The tree is popular in Ecuador, which has been almost completely deforested of native evergreens in the highlands, because it produces a high volume of wood quickly. But it also depletes the soil of nutrients. Planting productive farmland with eucalyptus, as the article excerpt below says had been done historically, is a very bad idea. Land given over to eucalyptus can't be reverted to farmland.


Over the next six years, optimistic farmers planted millions of individual blue gums throughout California; a few months in 1909 alone saw the creation of more than 23,000 acres of new eucalyptus groves. Some farmers even replaced productive fields with eucalyptus stands, and the Los Angeles Board of Water Commissioners mooted a proposal to plant 25 million trees along the Owens River Aqueduct, then under construction.

[harob11]

Great finds, guys! Very interesting! I'm down in Laguna Beach/Newport for the week and it just struck me how much nicer the landscaping is around here than Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara has more natural beauty but the cities around here sure make it looks like a beautiful garden everywhere with flowers and plants and palms and pine trees. I wish SB would do a little more of that, it almost feels like Hawaii or something..