Red Car Canyon: First Tree Down

Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 12, 2023.  

A large Eucalyptus tree went down on the Lake View Ave side of Red Car Canyon. 

We’ve seen a number of Eucalyptus go down in the same part of the canyon over the past 3 decades.  

Eucalyptus do not hold hillsides together like native Coast Live Oak, Black Walnut and Toyon.

  

 

Red Car Canyon: Swampy

Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 12, 2023.  

Two days after a major storm dumped around 6” of rain on the neighborhood, Red Car Canyon was swampy but walkable.

Just stop driving through the canyon. The Red Car Property is not a park, but it still looks like one.

The pine tree leaning at a 45 degree angle has been been held up by another tree for decades.

Corralitas Red Car Property: Mudwatch

 Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor January 12, 2023.

Lake Corralitas and a familiar mudslide returned on the south end of the property.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract: Paul Landacre Cabin & Grounds, LA City Historic Cultural Landmark #839

 

Photo: Andrew Sears, 2005.    

In 2005, the City declared Paul Landacre's Cabin and grounds, at 2006 El Moran, a Cultural Historic Landmark. Landacre's work was influenced by and often depicted the neighborhood in his work.

 

Paul Landacre wrote about his life in the Echo Park hills in 1958, not so different from those who live in the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists' Tract today:

"You see, art is practiced here along with various other concerns -
pruning trees, repairing the roof, watching and feeding wildlife and so
on. Of course, other artists live on wooded hillsides, too, and so do
other people, and it must be conceded that to some of us this kind of
environment is not only valuable, but absolutely necessary - a degree of
seclusion, the life of growing things, awareness that we are a part of
nature."

Photo: Andrew Sears, 2005.

 

Landacre carved a petrel, his signature bird into the roof vents on each side of his house. He used the petrel as his trademark on his work, often in place of his signature.

Landacre struggled with physical disabilities most of his life. He identified with the petrel since they learn to fly by jumping off a cliff; falling into the raging sea; hurling themselves off the peaks of waves until they learn to fly. They crash into the rocks and waves, beat up, but they learn to fly.

*This post was originally published November 7, 2007, on our short-lived sister blog, Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract.  In an effort to connect neighbors across the 2 Freeway in our shared issues & development battles, we folded the Semi Tropic blog into the Corralitas Red Car Property Blog in 2009.

Corralitas Drive: Sad

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 5, 2020.

Yesterday evening, Corralitas Drive neighbors were disappointed to find the hastily constructed Red Car Property fence locked. The neighbor's 2-year-old son looks forward to the daily outings on the Red Car Property, as does the entire family.

For nearly 20 years, the Red Car Property owner has threatened to fence the entire property every time neighbors contact CD13 regarding brush clearance, dumping, homeless camps, joyriding, abandoned vehicles, general lawlessness, etc.  Considering the brush clearance was done early for what seems like the first time, we suspected a development application was pending.  We did not expect a fence.

There are currently no active applications or approvals for zone change or subdivision, and no building permit applications or approvals on file for the Red Car Property. No zone changes or subdivisions have been granted.

CD13 has requested additional information from City departments regarding neighbors' specific inquiries about easements, public safety and the adjacent DWP property fenced in this week at Riverside and Fletcher.

Follow us on Twitter @RedCarProperty for current updates and photos. 

Related: The Eastsider 

Red Car Property: Not A Park

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November15, 2017.  Sometimes, you just have to wonder how desperate we are for open space near our homes, that we're willing to put up with the construction fence that took more than half the width of the Red Car Property near Adelbert.  The fence went up over a year ago for a development on Riverside Drive that is not a part of the Red Car Property.

Lake View Ave: Dead Pine Tree Removed

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 15, 2017.  The huge pine tree in a Lake View Ave backyard never recovered after the June 19, 2016 Silver Lake Fire.  The Red Car Property line runs along the power lines.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, November 30, 2017.  Thursday, the sounds of chainsaws caught the attention of neighbors as the tree was finally being cut down.  Neighbors had complained to LAFD Brush Unit as well as CD13 since before the May 1 deadline for brush clearance as nothing on the Lake View Ave lot, including the castor bean forest, was cleared this year.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 1, 2017.  By Friday they were chopping up what was left of the huge pine tree.

Video: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 1, 2017.  A better sense of scale is gained with the number of huge trunk slices laid out on  the Red Car Property.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 201.  In case there was any doubt the big pine tree was dead, here's another angle.  

Worth noting: the native Coast Live Oak and California Black Walnut Trees were recovering on the Red Car Property, downslope from the power lines.  In fact, many of the protected native trees were cut down by LAFD brush contractors and overcautious homeowners in the past year and a half.  However, even the the native trees cut all the way to a stump are, for the most part recovering.  Black Walnuts are currently dropping their leaves for winter.

Red Car Property: Brush Clearance Resumed Today

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor,  August 30, 2017.  Workers took a break from the insane heat and brush clearance on the slope below Lake View Ave, in the shade of a protected Native Black Walnut Tree.  It's hard to tell in this photo, but it looks like some more of the recovering Black Walnuts were chopped yet again.  

The Red Car Property line goes, roughly, along the power lines. 

Note: We're playing catch up for the month of August. This was post was actually published 8-31-17 and backdated to the date the photo was shot and originally published on Twitter.  It's our goal to catch up this weekend. 

Corralitas Red Car Property: Why Are LAFD Brush Clearance Fines The Same, No Matter The Size Of Your Lot?

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, August 4, 2017.  Neighbors are understandably nervous about fire on the Red Car Property. Weeds are taller and more dense than before the 2016 Silver Lake Fire.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, August 4, 2017.  Most  of the protected native Coast Live Oaks and California Black Walnuts are returning to the slopes.  Looks like there are still a few upslope neighbors on Lake View who still have not done their brush clearance.  You'd think after last summer's fire, they'd be the first to do brush clearance.  But then no one can believe the Red Car Property owner hasn't done the brush clearance yet.  

Perhaps part of the problem is the fines for failing to do brush clearance are the same - no matter what size lot you have - 5000 sq feet or 5 acres.  The fine from LAFD is per lot, not per square foot. You still have to pay for brush clearance, but you'd have to pay for brush clearance, whether or not you did it on time.  

Raise the potential fines for non-compliance on the large lot owners to encourage prompt brush clearance.  Track the non-compliant lot owners every year.  Each year the lot is fined for non-compliance, increase their penalties.   Prioritize the routine scofflaws.  

There is no incentive for large lot owners to take responsibility for their own property.  LAFD has the potential to bring in more fees from fining up to 135 adjacent lots, than from the 5 (or 6 according to APNs) lots of the Red Car Property.  There's not a lot of impetus for LAFD to red tag the Red Car Property owner, other than a fire starting  on or spreading via the Red Car Property, would endanger the whole neighborhood.   In 2016, 200 firefighters, wildland fire crews and a massive air assault (water dropping helicopters from at least 3 agencies) kept the 2016 Silver Lake Fire from becoming a major disaster. 

A neighbor ran into the LAFD Brush Inspector on site July 28, 2017.  The inspector said another notice to comply would be mailed to the owner. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, August 4, 2017.  The Red Car Property goes up to the telephone poles running across the middle of the slope.  In some cases the adjacent property owners cleared well beyond their property line.  

Unfortunately, last December, LAFD Brush Clearance contractors also took out a lot of native Black Walnuts when they did clearance.  Some very native large trees on this slope were cut down to the ground, even though they were recovering.  Most of the walnuts are recovering are coming back despite the butchery (the green shrub like plants midway up the slope on the left.)  There was no need to cut them down as they were already recovering from the fire.  Native trees are fire resistant.

Related: 
LAFD Brush Inspection Process 
All our brush clearance posts

Red Car Property North: Still Needs Brush Clearance

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017. The grass is dry and mostly mashed down but not cleared between the construction fence and Fletcher on the Red Car Property.  Protected native Black Walnuts are repopulating the slope.  A number of trees died after five years of drought.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017.  The Red Car Property is between Riverside Drive and Fletcher and Adelbert Ave.  Adelbert is a substandard Hillside Street with a number of hairpin turns to reach Lake View Ave.  It has only one means of access.  We don't know why Adelbert is not a Red Flag No Parking street.

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017.  A year ago, the construction site on Riverside Drive, directly below the Red Car Property, took a lot of the Red Car Property with their construction fence, in addition to clear cutting trees on the Red Car Property.  This is the pedestrian path they left us.  Last year, their agreement with the property owner was to do the brush clearance on both sides of their fence.

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017.  The construction site appears to have done brush clearance on the portion of the Red Car Property behind their fence.  It also looks like a few native trees are returning and recovering to the flat portion of the Red Car Property above the construction site.

Neighbors have expressed concerns that the native saplings and recovering native trees should be preserved as the brush clearance contractors are not known for their care with young trees.  

As with other parts of the Red Car Property, neighbors want to know why the property owner is allowed to get away with not doing brush clearance by May 1, every year?

Click here for all our brush clearance posts.

Corralitas Red Car Property: No Trespassing Signs Appear. How About Red Tags?

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 2, 2017. No Trespassing signs appeared on the ground at the Corralitas end of the Red Car Property.  The signs neighbors wanted to see for the past 2 months are LAFD Red Tag notices for brush clearance.  The Red Car Property extends up to the telephone poles, running across the slope.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 2, 2017.  This sign will not stop anyone.  

We've highlighted brush clearance issues on the Red Car Property for the past decade.  Click here for all our brush clearance posts.

Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract: Dead Trees, Brush Clearance

Photo: Corralitas Drive Neighbor, June 13, 2017.  Dry grass on the odd slope on Allesandro St at Rosebud Ave which is actually Sunflower Ave, but the maps are out of sync with the street signs.  (click on photos to enlarge.)

The odd slope is within the CalTrans easement, but like everything surrounding the 2 Freeway, no one takes responsibility for it. More than once in 27 years,  I've seen a CalTrans crew spray the weeds with poison.

Photo: Corralitas Drive Neighbor, June 13, 2017.  Enlarged from previous photo.  Dead Eucalyptus are in the Modjeska Street right-of-way, a paper street, on an  extremely steep slope in the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract.  Looks like the Modjeska slope is in need of brush clearance too.  The City will never build  40' wide Modjeska Street right-of-way, as it is steeper than a 30% grade.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 22, 2016.  A year ago, the dead non-native Eucalyptus in the Modjeska paper street, were clearly evident as viewed from Corralitas Drive.  Eucalyptus trees all over the area have been dying suddenly for the past 4 years.  The Modjeska trees have been dead for more than a year.

Every year on and around the 4th of July, some idiots invariably shoot fireworks off over the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract.

Red Car Property: Why We Bitch About Brush Clearance

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor June 6, 2017.  Aside from the potential risk of fire fueled by dry weeds and  unrestricted vehicle access to the Red Car Property, there are other risks both on the Red Car Property and adjacent lots.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

 1. Several adjacent Lake View Ave, Silver Ridge Ave and Corralitas Drive neighbors have failed to do their brush clearance.  There is a large Castor Bean forest growing on one Lake View Ave lot.  Castor Bean Plants are non-native, highly invasive.  All parts of the plant are extremely toxic and emit a toxic gas when burned (Ricin).  Castor Beans will take over entire hillsides, quickly crowding out any native species.  

The power lines in the middle of the slope run along the property line between the Red Car Property and adjacent Lake View and Silver Ridge lots.

2. At least one telephone pole (see arrow in photo above) appears bowed or bent.  With fires in 2014 and 2016, neighbors wonder if the pole has been weakened and needs replacing. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 16, 2016.  Several neighbors spent months after the 2016 fire getting the runaround from DWP and AT&T regarding the status of the pole.  Nothing ever seems to have been resolved.

3. There are several large dead and dying trees near the power lines including what's left of one pine tree leaning at a 45 degree angle (see first photo).  The trees appear to be on the adjacent Lake View lots.  In April, DWP contractors trimmed trees under and within 10' of the high voltage lines in the Red Car Canyon.  However, Eucalyptus can collapse months after the rainy season, usually in July and August.  At least one of the two big dead trees on the slope is Eucalyptus and perilously close to a telephone pole that has a transformer on top (see first photo). 

The first photo does show one positive thing.  The protected native Black Walnuts and Coast Live Oak, along with other large trees are recovering from the 2016 Silver Lake Fire.

Red Car Property: Brush Comparison 2017-2016

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 30, 2017.  Dry weeds are taller and more dense than they were just a year ago.  Although the trees are recovering from the 2016 Silver Lake Fire.  Note the dry brush on the slope.  Neighbors are asking, once again, "How do the large lot owners get away without doing brush clearance by May 1, EVERY YEAR?" (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 17, 2016.  A month before the June 19, 2016 fire, the dry weeds on the flatter part were sparse and the dry brush on the slope was mashed down and not as thick as normal years due to the lack of rain.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 20, 2016.  The day after the Silver Lake Fire, the trees didn't look so bad. Lots of water poured on the fire from the air and by hose washed much of the charred debris from the slopes. The following weeks would not be good.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 12, 2016.  Four months later, neighbors questioned if the trees would recover.  The protected native Black Walnut and Coast Live Oak Trees, in particular, had shown signs of recovery, but with a desolate post-fire landscape, if you didn't look closely while walking the property, you did not see the new growth.  It doesn't help that the Black Walnuts and Chinese Elms drop their leaves for winter, so the growing season was all screwed up for these poor trees. 

After the fire, CalTrans clear-cut so many trees adjacent the Red Car Property and Corralitas Drive, there was a dramatic temperature shift in the immediate neighborhood with the loss of so much morning shade. The street is hotter, sunnier and dustier.  It did not rain significantly until shortly after LAFD contractors did brush clearance in December.

Red Car Property: Dry Brush

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 5, 2017.  The good news is some of the big trees are recovering after the 2016 fire.  Bad news: dry brush is more dense than a year ago.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 12, 2017.  Some upslope neighbors did their brush clearance by May 1.  Understandably, it appears at least one went overboard clearing well past the property line.  (The power lines, halfway up the hill, are at the property line to the Red Car Property.)  Many of the protected native Black Walnuts and Coast Live Oaks are recovering from last year's fire, including trees LAFD's contractors cut down (that were not dead) 6 months after the fire. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 12, 2017.  A relatively small tree that did not recover from the fire and CalTrans' subsequent butchery, is still partially blocking Corralitas Walk, a public sidewalk between Corralitas Drive and Allesandro Way and Lake View Ave.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 5, 2017.  The dead tree still had its crown a week earlier.  Ironically, May 8, three days after this photo was taken, CalTrans sent me email confirmation that the fence had been fixed here on a complaint I'd made November 3, 2016, regarding fence damage between Rosebud/Corralitas and Allesandro Way/Lake View Ave.  I guess if they can't see it from their trucks, the problem doesn't exist.

Red Car Property: Not A Park, It Would Still Look Like One Without The Construction Fence

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 30, 2017.  North of the construction fence on the Red Car Property, some, not all, of the protected native Black Walnut Trees have recovered from the last five years of exceptional drought.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Let's hope all those trees are storing lots of water.  Due to the loss of more than a dozen huge Eucalyptus trees on the property near Adelbert, and developers clear cutting the adjacent recovering native woodland for a 14-home development on Riverside Drive, the north end of the trail has been through radical change of the urban forest.  It's hotter, sunnier and drier than just a few years ago.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 19, 2009.  The Big Parade walked through the same section of the property in JULY.  Almost all the trees on both sides of the trail (for the length of the hikers' line in this shot) were California Black Walnuts.  Now the walnuts are fighting back with other native and non-native trees.   

Red Car Property: Looking For Wildflowers?

Photo: S. Bartron, March 22, 2017.  The north end of the Red Car Property, above the City of Los Angeles Historic Landmark Viaduct Footings (looking toward the Menlo Property and Griffith Park), has long been a healthy ecosystem where native wildflowers and wildlife can be found.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 9, 2009.  Tomcat Clover above the historic viaduct footings.

Even though the non-native grass and flowers are tall, it's time to look for native wildflowers low to the ground, particularly at the base of the slope going up to Adelbert, among the viaduct footings and along the edges of the trail.  Many of the native flowers bloom after the non-native, invasive grasses have gone to seed, so there is still time to start looking for the native plant communities.

Photo: Diane Edwardson,  February 2, 2013.  Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia) near the viaduct footings.

What blooms on the north end of the Red Car Property?  Natives include: Blue Fiesta Flowers, Miner's Lettuce, Tomcat Clover, Golden Stars, Arroyo Lupine, Spanish Lotus, California Fuchsia, Doveweed, Kotolo Milkweed, Cudweed, California Poppy, Toyon, Native Dandelions, in addition to protected native Coast Live Oak and Black Walnuts.  There are others we've not yet identified.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 6, 2016.  Mystery plants near Adelbert have green flowers that apparently create pink to red seeds.

Non-native grasses are more diverse than you might think.  Non-native Wild Radish flowers are widespread, scenic and attract a variety of butterflies.

California Harvester Ants were thriving and helping to diversify the plant population by harvesting and inadvertently planting seeds.  Prior to the devastation of the urban forest on the Red Car Property and the the Riverside Drive Lots now being graded, Harvester Ants thrived in either a super colony or multiple colonies between the Coast Live Oak Tree and Fletcher.  Harvester Ants are an "indicator species."  Their presence is a sign of a healthy and diverse environment.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 21, 2016.  Native Dandelions attract a variety of pollinators including tiny beetles.

Unusual bugs to look for: mod-looking Flower Flies, Funereal Duskywings, swarming Green Darner Dragonflies, Trapdoor Spiders and in June, look for Tarantula Hawks. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 8, 2014.  Red Shouldered Hawks tend to hang out in the protected native Black Walnut Trees.   

Red Tailed Hawks ride the updrafts of Fletcher at Riverside, often landing in the power line towers off the public staircase coming down from Waverly.  Neighbors report hearing owls after dark.

Rarely seen, but present in the neighborhood: Bobcats and Gray Foxes.

In the early mornings you're likely to see coyotes on this part of the Red Car Property, even crossing Fletcher near the ARCO Station.

Click here for all our neighborhood native plant posts.

Red Car Property: FIESTA!

Photo: Jay Lieske, March 19, 2017.  Native Blue Fiesta Flowers (Pholistoma auritum) reclaimed the slope at the Adelbert cut-through on the Red Car Property.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Lieske, a longtime Red Car Property neighbor, reports the Blue Fiesta Flowers are thriving in the slope between the Adelbert cut-through to Fletcher.  Lieske said, "The Fiesta Flowers are even climbing up the chain-link fence around the construction."

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 13, 2009.  In 2009, we first discovered and documented a few Blue Fiesta Flowers near the Adelbert cut-through to the Red Car Property.

2016 was a lean year for the ever festive Fiesta Flowers due to the extraordinary drought combined with the removal of more than dozen large Eucalyptus that died suddenly over the course of 2 years. This alone changed the ecosystem dramatically due to the loss of shade as well as water and carbon storage capacity of the huge trees.  The north end of the Red Car Property which had always been cooler and more damp, suddenly became an inhospitable place, hotter and drier than the previous 26 years I'd walked the property.

Further destroying habitat, in August2016, an entire forest of trees  (including scores of protected native Black Walnuts that had begun to grow back after the 2014 illegal tree removal) was clear cut for the development of the Riverside Drive lots north of Gilroy, further changing the climate and ecosystem in the neighborhood.  

Let's hope the remaining protected native trees on this section of the Red Car Property recover from the past 6 years of extreme drought and stupidity development, encouraging the entire native plant community and the diversity of wildlife it supports to return to the north end of the property.

Click here for all our Blue Fiesta Flower photos and related posts.