Vegetation on public land near River Bend Park was reduced to stumps by vandals.
The American River Parkway – stretching from the confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers to Folsom Lake – is threatened by people acting as if the parkway is their private property and not a public asset.
While people decry habitat destruction caused by illegal camping by the homeless, the parkway has long suffered from illegal tree and brush cutting by residents who live in multimillion-dollar homes on the bluffs above the river.
Those trees and other vegetation provide habitat for wildlife, including shade for salmon. They are part of the natural beauty and complex ecology of the parkway – and they screen houses from the view of visitors in the parkway. They help make the parkway a prized natural, scenic, recreational and ecological resource.
That’s why it is important to investigate and prosecute those who vandalize the parkway by slashing trees. At a minimum, they should face fines and the cost of restoring the habitat.
Unfortunately, the exclusive River Bend area is in the news again.
Back in 1992, Judy and John Reynen, a well-known developer in the region, reimbursed Sacramento County $4,100 to replant 140 cottonwood and willow trees in a 100-by-150-foot swath of land they had their gardeners clear between their home and the American River. Ironically, at the time Judy Reynen was an active member and fundraiser for the Sacramento Tree Foundation.
In another high-profile case 10 years later, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Peter J. McBrien pled guilty to cutting trees near the Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Ancil Hoffman Park. McBrien was charged with felony vandalism for “unlawfully and maliciously” damaging oak trees in the public parkway. He agreed to a misdemeanor plea bargain, was fined $500 and agreed to pay $20,000 in restitution to the nature center.
So we come to 2010 and yet more trees and brush have been cut in the River Bend area. Where exactly? One spot is an area 30 by 150 yards in front of the Reynen home. Another spot is on a nearby island in the American River.
So far no one has stepped forward to admit the vandalism (as in the 1992 Reynen case) or as a witness to it (as in the 2002 McBrien case).
Ultimately, the integrity of the public parkway depends on the ethical sense of the people who visit or live near it. Anyone who has information about the cuttings at River Bend should call park rangers at (916) 875-7275.
At the time of the 1992 tree-cutting incidents, then-county ecologist Jeffrey Hart said, “This is a good opportunity to educate the public about the value of the parkway, that the trees provide a lot of habitat for wildlife and that the parkway gives people a sense of nature in the city, and that is what they love about it.” Nearly 20 years later, that lesson is worth repeating.