Tipuanas at Goleta’s Camino Real Marketplace Meet the Ax
Leafy Trees with Beefy Roots Being Replaced with Willows
In a tussle between concrete and trees, the Tipuana trees were winning until Camino Real Marketplace decided to intervene. Of the 80 Tipuana trees planted in the parking lot of the popular Goleta shopping center, 50 were removed as they were causing breaks in the concrete and asphalt with their aggressive root systems. Taking the Tipuana tipus‘ place are Australian willows, a tree with a similar large canopy to provide optimal shade and with less invasive roots to spare the asphalt.
Mark Ingalls, the general property manager for the shopping center, explained that at the start of construction in 1998, cement barriers 30 feet deep were built to give the Tipuana trees optimal room for their roots. However, the persistence of drought caused the root systems to seek water more aggressively, and the manmade structures proved to be no match.
Ingalls said the decision to remove and replace the Tipuana trees followed a three-year effort to remediate the broken asphalt and attempt different watering systems for the trees, to no avail. The 30 remaining Tipuana trees will be replaced to maintain level, safe pavement for visitors, said Ingalls.
Don McDermott, a concerned community member who called the chopping a “massacre of trees,” did not believe replanting was the right solution. “Every tree has a problem that does not fit perfectly into the human’s concrete needs,” McDermott said. “It is about coexistence, not domination.”
McDermott added that the parking stalls near the entrance to Costco had tree wells that had been completely filled in. After searching for an answer to explain these mystery wells, it turned out to be a miscalculation by Costco. Ingalls said no trees had ever been planted there.
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