Disaster! Los Angeles Botanic Gardens rise to the Challenge!

The dictionary definition of a botanic garden is “a garden for the exhibition and scientific study of collected, growing plants, usually in association with greenhouses, herbariums, and laboratories.” How do staff manage when disaster strikes and these collections are compromised? On December 1, hurricane-force winds far in excess of 100 mph strafed Pasadena and neighboring Arcadia, two cities adjoining Los Angeles, where two of America’s crown jewel public gardens are found. I had planned on visiting both and had arranged it all prior to the winds.

When I heard the extent of damage, I thought to bow out. Friends at both institutions encouraged me to come and I’m glad I did. I was stunned to see how quickly staff had cleaned up what had to be a Herculean task. It reaffirmed my high regard both gardens, and convinced me that the rest of us could well learn from their disaster planning for our own institutions.

The Huntington opened a few days after the windstorm. Although much larger than the Los Angeles Arboretum not far away, Curator Kathy Musial estimates they lost not many more than 100 trees. Many of these were massive in size, and they were concentrated in the Australian and Tropical Garden areas. We took a stroll through these areas, and although much had been already removed, I was sobered to see dozens of massive trunks still in place. Of course, it’s not just the trees that are down; many that are still standing have sustained enormous damage. Miraculously, no people were killed in this storm, and there was surprisingly little damage to buildings, The picture below does show that even a massive, marble urn cannot sustain a direct hit by a gigantic trunk!

Marble urn overturned by massive trunk fall

The Huntington is  a private, non-profit foundation and the property likewise belongs to the foundation, so all cleanup and mitigation is paid for without public assistance.

The Los Angeles Arboretum proffered a different scenario. It was amazingly cleaned up considering that over 325 trees were toppled, however it is estimated that another 700 will need some pretty severe ”restorative” pruning (I think restorative may be a synonym for drastic in some instances.) Since the Arboretum only has about 7,000 trees total, this represents a significant proportion of all the trees here.

Huge mounds of trunks and dead trees piled up everywhere.

The picture below pretty well shows how devastating the winds must have been. A whole row of Montezuma Cypress (the Mexican cousin to our native Bald Cypress of the South) were snapped like toothpicks in the middle. I can only  imagine the scimitar force of that wind! I was so amazed that so much cleanup had been done so quickly and so well, and that everyone seemed so upbeat (despite their obvious grief at losing some very old and valuable plants). I asked Susan Eubank, the librarian there (and formerly librarian at Denver Botanic Gardens as well) for some information on what all it took to get so much done so quickly and so well: she said the following groups pitched in:

“Groups who came to help cleanup included LA County Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures Weed Abatement Crew, LA County Parks and Recreation Dept.Tree Crew, LA County Parks and Recreation Dept. The Trail Crew, LA County Dept. of Public Works, LA County Fire Department, LA County Parks and Recreation Department Community Service crews, our staff, both LA County and Foundation, our grounds maintenance contractor Conejo Crest, and LA County Parks and Recreation Transportation Crew.”

There were no census takers on hand, but somewhere between 100-200 people–mostly public workers–pitched in to help with the cleanup. A great testament to the importance and value of the public sector that is so often demeaned and criticized by demagogues. A private garden suffering that sort of damage would likely be bankrupted. When I asked her about the high morale, Susan credited the fact that all the senior staff involved, including the Director Richard Schulhof, Superintendent Timothy Phillips, Superintendent and Senior Biologist Jim Henrich (and Susan especially) have had wide experience at many public gardens. She also stressed that the staff as a whole is cohesive and has clear channels of communication–something we can all learn from! I congratulate this formidable team. Something tells me that Los Angeles’ benign climate will mask the damage quickly and in a few years hardly anyone (except those involved) will remember this amazing event.

Montezuma cypress by pond needing "restorative" pruning?

I must end with a special acknowledgment of Jim Henrich, who has had a glorious career at several of America’s finest gardens. When I first met him in the early 1990’s he was overseeing all of horticulture at St. Louis Botanical Garden, where he had managed much of the planting and development of the Climatron. He arrived in Denver, where he spent much of the 1990’s overseeing our tumultuous growth in horticulture culminating in a complete gutting and replanting of our conservatory, which he orchestrated with such panache that when the San Francisco Botanical Garden sought someone to manage the enormous reconstruction of the Conservatory of Flowers (which cost over 23 million dollars), Jim was called upon and rose to that occasion with flair. He succeeded Scott Medbury as acting director of SFBG before finding his commodious niche in Los Angeles. And now he finds himself facing yet another monumental chore! Can’t you see how burdensome it must be? What a smile! North American horticulture owes this man a great debt.

Jim Henrich, once director of horticulture in Denver, now curates the L.A. Arboretum. Here he proudly displays his computer data collector!