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Business & Tech

Don't Sweat the Shade (Trees)

Burlingame's trademark flora weathers a blistering storm season

Along with quality of life and access to shopping, Burlingame is known for its trees. Postcards from as far back as the 1920s show a nascent El Camino Real bursting with greenery, and the tree-lined streets of Burlingame’s Easton Addition are part of a Rockwellian tableau that is unmatched anywhere else in the Bay Area. It’s not by accident that Burlingame is known as “The City of Trees.”

Throughout its history, Burlingame has debated its trees. In 1930, locals engaged in spirited back-and-forth over whether to cede trees to zone El Camino Real for business. The zoning measure lost. The trees stayed.

Eight years later, the Peninsula Progress newsletter urged “that the hazardous Eucalyptus and Pine Trees along El Camino Real, Easton Drive, East Burlingame Avenue, Southern Pacific right-of-way, and other locations, be removed and replaced by a more desirable and safer tree.” The newsletter argued that the existing trees “cause such extreme nervousness and desperation that tax-paying citizens and others have preferred to take refuge in their basements and elsewhere rather than to risk their lives in bedrooms which might, in one fearful moment, be blotted out by tons of death-dealing eucalyptus or pine trees falling.”

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Seven decades later, the eucalyptus trees are still here. Standing tall, even after a winter of harsher than normal storms.

Usually, Burlingame’s trees are reason to celebrate. In times of bad weather, though, Burlingame’s trees can show their menacing side, causing “extreme nervousness and desperation” and reminding everyone that every upside has its risks.

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But how great are those risks? A City of Trees would naturally seem at risk during storms, but according to Steve Willett of Timberline Tree Service, Burlingame’s trees – even the eucalyptus -- stayed mostly upright during the past week’s storms.

“We’ve had a few [downed trees] in Burlingame, but it hasn’t been too bad,” he said. “Not like we’ve had in Hillsborough and portions of San Mateo.”

There are many variables that determine how much wind and water a tree can stand. The present storm  system, meteorologists have reported, features winds blowing in unusual directions. Several trees, having spent decades adjusting to winds coming from one direction, found themselves vulnerable last week. The coastal live oak, for example, suffered terribly during the recent storm, Willett said. The coastal live oak is very popular in Hillsborough. Meanwhile, Burlingame has held up.

Even those non-native eucalyptus trees, a source of controversy in Burlingame since the day in 1870 when pioneer John McLaren planted them to serve as a windbreak, stood tall in the latest storm. Willett, whose company has worked on Burlingame’s eucalyptus trees for the past seven years, cites the city’s commitment to the trees as the reason they’ve endured. “They put a lot of time and money into those things,” he said.

What does that mean to you, the homeowner? It’s simple: take care of your trees and they won’t seek revenge by crashing down onto your home during a rainstorm. Keep them pruned, pay attention to them.

“Put some money into them,” Willett said. “And they’ll fare a lot better in a storm like [the ones we’ve had in recent weeks].”

Every year since 1979, Burlingame has been awarded the title of Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation. Homeowners understand the risks and happily reap the rewards of their town’s greenery. Good luck finding a Burlingame resident who’d advocate ripping out the trees to avoid potential future storm damage to his home or a downtown business.

Trees are worth the risk – and the risk can be mitigated with a little effort and investment. Willett said trees tend to “fall lucky.” That is, for every ten fallen trees, only one hits something besides the ground. This week, Timberline has seen only one case of property damage in Burlingame.

Storms such as the ones we’ve enduring this winter create a challenge for cities heavy on trees like Burlingame, but in the end, despite stories of havoc that appear on the nightly news (Timberline has been contacted by more than one local TV station this week), the damage to property is usually minor. So rest easy, Burlingamers; there is no hidden, flora-related catastrophe lurking in the City of Trees.

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