Recommendation to request City Manager, or his designee, work with Public Works Department and return to Council with a To/From/For memorandum and a receive and file presentation within 90 days; In addition, request City Manager, or his designee to provide recommendations to improve the current policies/processes surrounding tree infestations; a cost estimate for the removal and replanting of all affected magnolia trees within the City's boundaries; and a cost estimate for water blasting all affected sidewalks to remove the Tulip Tree Scale secretions.
Thank you. I will hear the next item, please to believe is 20. Communication from Councilmember Arango, Councilmember Pierce, Councilwoman Price, Vice Mayor Andrew's recommendation to request City Manager to work with public works department and return to council with a two from four memorandum and a presentation within 90 days on the Magnolia Tulip Street Scale. Comprehensive Update. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. Let me start with Councilmember Ranga. Thank you, Mayor. And before I begin, I want to thank my council colleagues, Councilmembers Pearce and Pryce, and also Vice Mayor Andrews for joining me on this important item here. A few years ago, I started receiving a lot of calls regarding magnolias and tree sap that were damaging not only cars, but streets and sidewalks. So as it's typically done, when we get calls like that, we get the arborists to go out and visit the the trees and see what is going on with them. The arborist concluded that there was a disease that was taking place in a few of those trees and they started a treatment to get them well. As time went on, we began to discover that the tree sap, which is not not toxic per se, but it is a thick soot that basically is a black and tar like that, basically hugs the ground and makes it very sticky and as well as on the street and also damages carpet. So we were finding that neighbors were not parking their cars under their trees and parking them elsewhere and creating all kinds of other havoc in the neighborhood. So as you arborists were treating these trees, we were getting more calls from other parts of the district now of experiencing the same the same issue with Willows Magnolias. So beginning earlier this year, we decided that this is an ongoing issue and it's a growing one. Come to find out that once we put this on the item that had my council colleagues join us in citing this issue, because it now that the SAP was beginning to appear in other parts of the city as well in other districts. So what I'm trying to do here today is to direct staff to look at the tree SAP issue and with the what's going on with the magnolias. The arborist has determined that the disease that these trees are experiencing is called to the tree scale. Basically, it's a pest that gets into the trees, it gets into the branches and it starts killing them. The response of the trees is like I like to liken it like to a body. When the body gets infected, it puts out its white, white blood cells to kill it. Well, the trees do the same thing. They start crying with their out, their sap, trying to get rid of the pest. But as you see here in some of these pictures, it gets really, really pervasive in terms of the tree set that that is that it deposits all over the place and could see right here the sap that goes out to the vehicles. And it's very liquidy, as you can see, and it's also very sticky. So the the item that I have here before you is to basically direct staff to take an inventory to get to give us some data in regards to the magnolia trees. By, first of all, counting how many trees are there in the city, how many are deceased? How can we treat them? What can we do to get them? Well, again, what can residents do if they have a magnolia tree that's infected in front of them in their yards? What can they do to preventive maintenance for preventing the the pests getting into their trees? So with that, I'm also wanting to get to a recommendation of some policies perhaps or some processes that we can include for the treatment of these trees and also getting some estimates as far as what would be the difference between. Fixing. One can fix a tree, but you can cure it. Cure curing the trees, treating them, removing them, and or eventually getting rid of them, as well as looking at what the cost would be for removing some of the the soot that you see right here on the sidewalks and on the streets and what the cost would be to get rid of that. It becomes a so not only a blight for the neighborhoods and for the houses that were there front of, but getting rid of those trees would really increase, would make the neighborhoods a lot better and more walkable. I walk my dog, for example, and I have to go around because walking through it, it is very sticky and and I don't want to even think what it does to the paws of my pets. So with that, I hope that I can get the support of my council colleagues to push this request forward and come back in around 90 days with a presentation and a policy as to how we can proceed with these trees. They pass it on. Thank you, Councilwoman Pryce. Thank you. I want to thank Councilman Ranga for bringing this item forward. This is so relevant right now, and I was excited to hear that he was bringing this item because it's a very relevant topic of conversation in the Alamitos Heights neighborhood of the city. We have about. 824 magnolia trees in the Alamitos Heights area. And I know that several of the trees have obtained are showing signs that there might be infested with this disease. So I'm looking forward to the report back. And I know that in our neighborhood we are going to have a community meeting just to give everyone an update about what's going on, because a lot of people have seen the sap and don't really know what it's connected with or what's causing it. So we will probably have a community meeting in the next three weeks to educate the community on what we're dealing with and what some of the recommendations are moving forward. So thank you, Councilman, for bringing this item forward and I appreciate the opportunity to sign on. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you, Mayor. First of all, I'd like to thank my county councilman Evinger for allowing me to come on this item with him, because, in fact, my portion regarding the, you know, homes at the hundreds of the beautiful trees in the, you know, mature, you know, magnolia trees, they are part of what creates the beauty and tranquility and neighborhoods in which we live in. But unfortunately, many of these trees have come infested with scales. We need to do everything we can in trying to save as many of these trees that we can. If we can't remove the some of the, you know, the most disease ones, then will have to do and eventually, I think will do, you know, and now we're going to have to lose them. All that would be would really would be a tragedy because these are very beautiful trees. But I think if we can sit around and do the things we were supposed to do, get some type of, you know, at least we can get some kind of data on finding out what we can do and what we can't do in order to save these trees. So I'm really asking my supporters to please join me with this item and and supporting this. And thank you for bringing it to the diocese. Thank you, Councilman Mongo. I want to thank both Councilman Price and Councilmember Otunga in that through the budget process, we already started discussing the challenges ahead and we were able to, even though we don't have a solution yet, set aside some funding that could be used when a solution is determined. So I appreciate that being brought to the attention of the committee in advance. I think this kind of thing is only possible when there is funding for it. And so the forward thinking of those colleagues that have magnolia trees is is critical. And I'm very I think it's notable that they be commended for their forward thinking. Thank you. We have four members of the public. Please line up and order Heather Stemmer to lead Stomatal orders and I apologize if I mispronounce it. Mr. Goodhue Mr. Horner via and I think it's Annette Aguilar. Please come forward. Good evening. I have some additional photos if if you guys are open to looking at them as well. You can pick them to the clerk right after. Actually, just give me after they speak. Okay. So I'm here tonight with my neighbors. I live at 37 Golden Avenue. And in front of my house, there's two infected trees. And they each have one infected tree that's about ten feet away from my property line. So you can imagine with pretty much any direction the wind blows, I'm getting this sap from three different trees at the same time. It is a very sticky substance and very thick once it lands and once it's on the tree. But something else to consider is that it's very easily airborne. It blows out into a very fine mist and gets everywhere. It's as has been discussed, it's ruining paint on cars, on homes. It's actually damaging the screens on my windows in the front, which are less than ten years old. And that company has already said that that's not going to be covered under warranty because it's just unusual circumstances. It's caused. Insect infestations year over year. I've we've I've had bees so bad three years in a row that we had to hire exterminators to come out. They couldn't even just rescue them. They had to tear off the whole back of my garage. Ants year after year after year that have caused hundreds of dollars in food loss. There have been times where you prepare dinner and you set it out and you can't even have dinner before there's ants coming out. Everything has to be sealed up in airtight containers all year long. All the time. Just about a month ago, a branch fell. I think it's a little bit worse than than you guys are understanding to or at least some of the trees are a little bit further in the decay process than than do you know, my neighbor had a branch that was roughly five inches thick and about six feet long fall off. I was standing out in front of my house. It glanced off of his car, luckily didn't cause any damage. But we're half a half a block from Bernie Elementary and there's at least a dozen larger branches on our for trees that are ready to fall off. Two of the trees are visibly leaning towards the street. We've been trying to reach out to the city, all four of us, for several years now. Marilyn was able to get one of her trees trimmed, one branch last year, and that's it. I mean, we don't get much in the way of return correspondence on what is going to happen. I did get the you know, the notice from councilman you're on his office that this was going to be discussed tonight so that I could come and talk to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. I'm Mr. Goodhue. Next up. When you think about it in many respects. This is what's happening. Throughout this city. With marijuana and vaping. People doing that walking down the street. The same infestations of disease. Are entering people's bodies. By inhaling. What those people are exhaling. And that provides a solution of how we deal with that other subject, essentially cut them down and ship them out someplace before they infect. More people, particularly the kids. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Mr. Horn Via. Hi. Good evening, Mary. Council members. First of all, I would like to bring to your attention a quote from the Department of Public Works. And as well-intended it is. And in a lot of the hard work that's coming in from the public works, I think it's a really interesting quote. And it follows. As such, the Public Works Department is committed to preserving and protecting the community's urban forests and promoting the health and safety of the trees from the time they are planted through maturity. However, as I mentioned, as well-intended as it may seem. Misdirected priorities. A lack of funding have left our urban forests vulnerable to infestation and death due to lack of watering, proper maintenance and importantly, lack of planning. Back in 2015, Citi Order estimated that the value of park trees was in the vicinity of $112 million. That's not including street trees, nor the additional quantifiable benefits of warming forests that would undoubtedly increase the value of the assets by millions more. Therefore, I applaud the decision by Councilmember Robert Tharanga in bringing the subject to the forefront once again. This is an issue that many of us in Long Beach, including city staff, have attempted to address. If you're years ago, back in 2016, actually, station worker also addressed a similar issue known as the Urban Tree Canopy Assessment and Management Plan. Eight years before that, Public Works also brought to the Council the Urban Force Master Plan, which was received and filed. Therefore, it is necessary that it be clearly addressed now and that the city developed the necessary structure to develop the Urban Forest's vision and clearly see it for what it is an asset, not a liability. Now, the issue that has prompted Councilmember Ranga to step up know we've clearly heard it is the magnolia scale of the problem affecting is affecting not only trees in our urban canopy. It is also affecting the quality of life of residents in District seven, District eight, District two, and throughout the city. As we deal with the results of climate change and pollution that are nearly affected, there are clearly affecting all of the residents of Long Beach, but more notably West Side and North Long Beach. Therefore, many residents and organizations throughout the city will like to join your effort in developing a long range strategy and offer our assistance. Moreover, we also proposed to the city a suggested treatment method that we feel will be the best step in addressing a tree scale issue. The suggestion comes after various conversations with the University of California Cooperative Extension personnel and other knowledgeable experts of the field. However, as we look to the long term success, we must encourage the city. To be proactive, to proactively maintain our urban forest by hiring competent urban forester to adequately to add to with adequate resources to oversee the vast number of trees and increase the forest areas throughout the city. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much, sir. And that gore. Hello, Signor Roberto Ranga. I just found out today that you're my council member. I am your constituent. I'm glad to be here and meet everyone and all the council members for Long Beach. I recently moved to Long Beach and I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying here. I'm a first time home homeowner, and it took a lot of effort for my family, for myself to get into our first home. These two months have been a nightmare for for myself, for my daughter, for my husband. Every time we drive into our home, we can see the darkness from the six magnolias that surround my house on the street. You can see how dark and black they are. So it's like a horror movie, just just the site itself. Once we get in there, all the tarp from the outside, we take in two of the driveway into the back of our house. All the leaves are constantly falling because of the type of tree are getting that black powder into our home. And when we rape and pick up the leaves we're smelling and we're worried about our or about our health. Also, I don't know if a lot of people have mentioned this, but there is a bad smell, very extreme bad smell, especially with the heat. So I think I just came in to walk into my first home and the worst time, which is the heat that drops. And this thing is raining, I think. Signor Roberto, it's a little bit more than just, you know, walking the dog and trying to avoid the street. It's a smell. It's constant rain and the months of heat and is just it's just a nightmare. And I think that I moved to Long Beach to to. To make sure that whatever we bring as a family is to make the city better. To care for the house that we purchase. To be a good resident. But when I see how the streets are broken up, the pavement is making a puddle of this tarp right in front because it's so broken. So even if I try to wash, which I wash the the sidewalk, all the water that I'm throwing, it just gets together. And there's this tart that starts fuming, all this smell, and it just stays there. So I have a puddle of tar of the smelly thing, and even if I wash, it makes it worse, Senor Roberto, because I'm just releasing more of the tar in the smell. So it really is a nightmare. It's evaluating. Maybe my house, I was told by public works, it's been four years now and I there's no more time for this. You know, maybe we'll put it in and we'll try to figure out. I think it's only going to get worse. And we wish our next summer that tree is gone and that we have a baby tree that we're going to attend to and care for. So we would like to have those trees removed and for the money to be available, because we were told by public works that it's a question of of money. So if you can please chop up those trees and thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. Councilman, your anger. Yeah. I want to thank those individuals that came forward today to talk about the this this issue. Obviously, our concern is to get these trees well, cutting the trees is our last resort. However, we understand that that might need to happen because some of them will be so far gone that we can't salvage them. As Councilmember Stacie Mango mentioned, we did do a little forward thinking on this to set aside some funds so that we could manage this issue with with the this too, the tree scale pest that's affecting our trees. And also as as it was presented earlier, it's spreading to it might be spreading spreading to other trees as well . So we need to address that issue as we move forward. So it's a it's an issue that we need to take care of. It's one that came has come forward to us within the most recent times because of the growing infestations going on. At first it was something that we thought we could take care of with a with an arborist and treating a few trees here and there. But we now know that it's a much larger issue than we first thought. So my my challenge that's not my challenge. My request to the public works department to staff is to come back with a plan to get these trees well. And if not, then let's talk about how we can replace them or have other types of trees planted in that spot. But it's going to cost. We know that we have the money set aside for it. And if and I encourage anybody who has a magnolia tree in front of their house that they think is experiencing this pest infestation, to please contact our office, call us or call the city manager's office and identify your your neighborhood or the trees so that we could include it into our inventory, because that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to collect data and we're trying to find out where these trees are, how many there are, how many are sick, how many have been treated, and how many have responded to the treatment. And we also want to be able to provide you, the residents, with information as to how you can also provide some preventive maintenance on your trees if they're well, right now, the last thing we want is to get your tree sick. So there's opportunities for here for us to be able to provide you with the information you need to has a preventive maintenance on your trees as well as getting them. Well, again, like I say, the last thing we want to do is to kill trees, chop them down, we want to keep them. But if we can't, then we need some alternative ways of being able to handle this in this situation. So again, I want to thank you for coming here this evening and for sharing your thoughts. And feel free to contact my office at Erika by 625707777. Should you have any other concerns that you want to raise with us regarding that? So with that, I'll pass it on to my colleagues. Thank you, Councilmember Ringa. And with that members, please cast your votes to receive and follow the report. And thank you to all those that came out I know that are going to be look obviously are looking forward to public works addressing this issue as well.