Warren Thomas calls it the “kill zone.”
A row of Canary Island palm trees that lines Modoc Road is marked for destruction as part of a Santa Barbara County plan to build a bike path.
Wearing a black “805” hat, a green Modoc Preserve shirt and a camera around his neck, Thomas knows the history of the area like the back of his hand. He recites stories of the Chumash who once lived in the area. He spots the monarch butterflies with ease and talks fondly of the woodpeckers and owls living in the trees.
Thomas was one of about 30 people who gathered on Modoc Road on Saturday morning to protest the removal of up to 46 trees to build a multiuse bike path between Santa Barbara and the Obern Trail.
The county’s two proposals would either remove 46 trees, including 29 mature Canary Island palms, under an option called “Alignment A.” A second option, “Alignment B,” would involve the removal of 21 trees. Most of the protesters said they don’t want either alignment and believe that all of the trees should be preserved.
“This is a green belt on the edge of an urban environment,” said Thomas, who lives in the neighborhood. “We want to keep this green belt. It is really important to protect all of the wildlife and nature that exist on this preserve.”
The project is scheduled to go before the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, and the staff is recommending that the board approve Alignment B.
County planners said the bike path would complete the last major gap in this regional network identified in the Eastern Goleta Valley Community Plan and the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments Regional Active Transportation Plan.
Among those in the crowd was Chelsea Beach, who held a sign that read “Save Modoc’s Trees” with one hand, and held her labrador and weimaraner dog Ella on a leash in another.
“These trees are more than 100 years old,” she said. “You can’t replace 100-year-old trees.”
She said there’s plenty of room now for bicyclists and that the entire ecosystem in the area depends on the success of the trees.
“These palm trees are housing birds we hear from every day,” Beach said.
Beach said she learned to walk in the Modoc Preserve as a child. Her 12-year-old son rides his bike to school every day using the existing path.
“There’s no need for them to put in a path for what is already happening,” Beach said.
The protest also drew some counter-demonstrators in favor of building the path.
“We are here because it is not a safe corridor for bikers, for walkers, for people in wheelchairs,” Holly Petersen said as she waved a sign that read, “PATH YIMBY,” which stands for “Yes, in my backyard.”
Petersen said the current conditions on Modoc Road are unsafe.
“We have connected paths all over the city,” she said. “We can get this connection done and make it safe, environmentally friendly, and we can co-exist with all of the beautiful nature in this city. This isn’t a lot to ask.”
Nearly 5,000 people have signed a petition to save the Modoc trees. The group already convinced Santa Barbara County to recirculate the draft environmental impact report and pushed the county to scale back from an original plan to remove up to 63 trees.
The plans call for the removal of trees along Modoc Road between Via Senda and Encore Drive, a neighborhood across from the Modoc Preserve adjacent to Hope Ranch. The trees include a combination of eucalyptus and Canary Island palms.
The $8 million project would create a “low-stress path” for people of all ages and abilities. It’s also intended to provide a safer alternative to Modoc Road’s unprotected bike lane. About $5.4 million of the total cost is funded by a Caltans Active Transportation Program grant.
But for many people, the county is still going too far.
“We could have a safe bike path and save the tree,” local homeowner and activist Eva Inbar said. “You just can’t bulldoze through a preserve. You have to be a little respectful of your environment.”
She said the trees have a special place in the hearts of the local residents.
“We can have a bike path on Modoc Road without taking out all those trees,” Inbar said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.