40 New Italian Stone Pines Restore Historic Drive in Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - 40 Italian Stone Pines have been planted to replace similar trees that have come down on Anapamu St. in Santa Barbara.

Members of Santa Barbara Beautiful assisted in the work with the City of Santa Barbara's Parks and Recreation Department and Forestry Division. The non-profit contributed $2,700 to fund the project.

Some of the aging historic trees have fallen in harsh weather or due to old age and several areas were barren, after a canopy of trees once covered the route. In its prime, the route between Garden St. and Anapamu St. was a picturesque walk or drive and often written up by historians.

The new trees were grown in special pots to encourage root strength down in the ground, not out or under the sidewalk where future problems could occur.

The city has discussed the tree replacement for several years, including the possibility of changing the type of tree in this area. Some residents felt the Italian Stone Pines had a storied past that needed to be preserved and cultivated for the future.

They brought the issue to the city's street tree adisory committee and eventually up to the Santa Barbara City Council where support was found to fill the gaps with the same type of tree.

"The trees were here before the sidewalk, before the paving, they created this arcade that the infrastructure grew around," said Rick Clossan who has spoken several times in favor of the new Italian Stone Pine trees.

The young trees now going in are about three-years-old now.

Santa Barbara City Urban Forest Superintendent Nathan Slack says, "the trees won at the end of the day in the City of Barbara. That happens  a lot and it is what makes the community super unique."

For now they don't look like the type of tree the public sees nearby, but they will. "They do look like Christmas trees  so the new growth is widely different even to the point  where the needles are in bundles  like two, three and five and currently they are single," said Slack.

Looking to the future, Closson said, "I have great hope for this and I hope to be around for another twenty years to see what it grows up to."   

(More details, photos and video will be added here later today.)

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