Does Redding Need Another Gas Station?
The last of the oak groves at the entrance to Redding will soon be cut down to make way for yet another gas station on Churn Creek Road next to the north-bound I-5 off ramp. Currently, three gas stations are located at that intersection, plus there is a nearby Shell station as well as Costco’s enormous 32-pump gas station on west side of I-5. There will also be a Wendy’s on the site.
There are currently 14 oak trees on the lot; seven are very large—over 24 inches in diameter. The largest blue oak over is 36 inches dbh (diameter at breast height), and there is a very large multi-trunked interior live oak over 48 inches dbh. The blue oak is most likely over 300 years old.
Unfortunately, Redding’s weak Tree Management Ordinance won’t save these trees nor will it provide any mitigation fees for their replacement elsewhere. The same thing happened for both sides of I-5 at the current Costco, Churn Creek Marketplace, and the Les Schwab Tire Center locations: all sites were formerly beautiful oak woodlands that were paved over without mitigation fees, destroying almost 50 acres of oak woodland.
Also of great historical interest are three low retaining rock walls, about 200 feet long each, the stone of which appears to have come from a local rock quarry over 100 years ago. One stone has a date of 1870 chiseled in it, but as Redding wasn’t built until 1872 it must have come from elsewhere. The closest quarry is at the intersection of Honeybee and Texas Springs roads, abandoned to weeds and the elements some 100 years ago.
Trees Dying in the Mt. Shasta Mall Parking Lot
Several months ago, Robert Sid posted a query on our Facebook page about trees dying in the Mt. Shasta Mall parking lot. I drove over to the Mall to it check out and found out he is right: trees are dead, dying, and highly stressed.
Photo taken October 9, 2024, by David Ledger.
Fourteen trees are completely dead, and 18 are almost dead, with only a single branch or two alive—they most likely will not make it through next year. Many of the other trees may not live more than a year or two. It also appears that 15 trees had already died and been removed. In total, 29 trees are dead or missing, and at least 18 will not make it another year.
What is the problem? I am not an arborist or a tree health specialist; however, as I see it:
- many of the trees are ash and cannot take many days of 110+ degree heat in an asphalt parking lot;
- the trees are not getting enough water; and,
- the trees’ trunks need to be painted white to reflect the hot sun’s rays. The bark on almost all of the dead or stressed trees is shredding and peeling off. When this happens, the tree cannot draw up enough water with its roots, even if it is being adequately watered.
The solution would be to plant trees that can better tolerate the harsh conditions of parking lots, such as native blue oaks or cork oaks, make sure they have adequate water during the summer, and, finally, to paint the trunks of the smaller trees white with latex paint.
It would benefit the City to hire an Urban Forester who could work through the Planning Department and help to enforce a much needed tree ordinance that has real teeth instead of the developer- and commercial-property-owner-friendly ordinance the City now has. Mitigation fees like those that many California cities charge for tree removal would cover the cost.
For more conservation news and events, please see Shasta Environmental Alliance’s November 2024 Newsletter. ~David Ledger, Conservation Chair