Eucalyptus

There are lots of these huge trees planted along Los Alamos Road. This one is right at the corner of Los Alamos and Wildwood Trail (which is only a block long). I kept John and Spike in the frame for scale because these trees are enormous. In this area they were often planted as windbreaks. In the Berkeley Hills they were planted as timber, only they turned out not to be suitable for timber, so they have taken over the hills. It is almost impossible to get rid of them, although The University of California and the East Bay Regional Park system have made a number of efforts to eradicate them, for they provided 80% of the fuel for the Berkeley/Oakland Hills firestorm of 1991. 

Our neighbors Janet and Paul have three big eucalyptus trees on their property. Janet loves them. She knows how we feel about them, but she also knows that we are aware difficult (and expensive) they are to take out. even though their insurance company would probably pay for it.Now that they have lost everything it is probably not foremost on their minds.

However, the man who is erecting the eyesore house directly above us told her years ago she should take the trees out,  because '"they're not native". She

Between us we could build a living wall of eucalyptus trees around two sides of the disaster he has created up there. It is ironic that she may have to take her trees down down because they were badly burned. It's still too soon to tell....I'm sure we could find some other fast growing trees...maybe even some non-native ones!

If we plant them now they might provide a screen by the time their house is built.