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Sentinel 06-10-16

By Amanda Frye and Mark Gutglueck
The water rights the Nestlé Corporation cites as the basis of its claim to the more than 35 million gallons of water it pumps annually from a remote canyon in the San Bernardino Mountains and markets as its Arrowhead brand do not pertain to either the aquifer or the location from which that water is being taken, an examination of the historical record shows.
In 2015, Nestlé withdrew 36 million gallons from remote Strawberry Canyon located at the approximate 5,200-foot elevation level in the San Bernardino Mountains by means of a series of tunnels, boreholes and horizontal wells. Nestlé did so under the aegis of a permit that expired 28 years ago, but which it has extended by continuing to pay the U.S. Government the $524 per year standard permitting fee for such uses in all National Forests. Forest Service officials say permits remain in effect until they are renewed or denied.
Nestlé of North America, a corporate subsidiary of the Swiss-owned Nestlé Corporation, acquired the expired permit from Perrier when it bought out that entity in 1992.
Perrier had acquired the permit when it purchased the BCI -Arrowhead Drinking Water Co. in 1987, at which time the permit was yet active. That permit allowed the holder to extract water from a significant below-ground source in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Arrowhead Springs Company formed in 1909, drawing surface water from Coldwater Canyon near the old Arrowhead Resort at approximately 2,000 feet and later from Waterman Canyon. In the 1930s, the Arrowhead Drinking Water Company obtained a special use permit from the Forest Service, and tunnels, boreholes and horizontal wells were placed at the higher elevation of 5,200 feet at the headwaters to Strawberry Creek.
The Arrowhead Springs Company merged with the Los Angeles-based Puritas Water Company in 1929 under the corporate parenthood of Consolidated Water. In 1978, Arrowhead Puritas renewed its permit for harvesting water from Strawberry Canyon by means of boreholes and horizontal wells, for which it paid the U.S. Government $524 per year, a standard fee for such uses in all National Forests. That permit expired 28 years ago, but the company continues to pay the miniscule fees associated with that permit and utilizes for commercial purposes water thousands of times in excess of that used by local domestic users who even before California Governor Jerry Brown’s executive order limiting water use statewide had their access to mountain water cut off.
During the early and middle part of the 20th Century, the Arrowhead Puritas Water Company enlarged the pipes used to tap into the aquifer below and around Strawberry Creek and over the years built the company into the largest purveyor of bottled water on the West Coast based upon the quality of that water.
According to industry analysts, Perrier, which was then a privately-held company, paid over $400 million to acquire the Arrowhead Puritas operation 29 years ago. Many at that time considered the French company’s investment to be an ill-advised one, given that the permit on the Strawberry Canyon spring water was due to expire the following year.
The U.S. Forest Service, however, did not bring the curtain down on Perrier’s continued drafting from the source. Perrier started operating under  “Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water Company,” which is not registered with the Secretary of State nor as a fictitious business name in San Bernardino County. Furthermore, the Forest Service did not undertake a review of the permit. Rather, the company simply stayed current on its permit fee and neither the Forest Service nor any other arm of the federal government interfered with the operation, which entailed Nestle/Arrowhead continuing to have free rein over the Strawberry Canyon water. Following the elapsing of the permit in 1988, Perrier and then Nestlé continued to pay the $524 annual fee attached to the permit, and continued to extract water unabated from Strawberry Springs, conveying the water away in a stainless steel pipeline. When Nestlé purchased Perrier in 1992 for $2.6 billion, it subsumed the Arrowhead operation.
When Nestlé inherited the operation in Strawberry Canyon from Perrier in 1992, it continued to operated under the “Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water Company” shell and the United States Forest Service allowed Nestlé to continue to utilize the expired permit, sending its invoices for the $524 annual charge to use the “irrigation” transmission pipeline to the Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water Company.
For the next 23 years, Nestlé’s use of the water from Strawberry Canyon went unchallenged, as all parties accepted the status quo. No effort by the United States Forest Service was made to terminate the permit. Nor, however, was the permit renewed.
Last October, with California in the midst of what scientists characterized as the most severe drought the state has suffered in 1,200 years and following the governor’s executive order severely curtailing the amount of water people can use in virtually every part of the state, a coalition of environmental groups filed suit against the United States Forest Service, essentially accusing it of according Nestlé favorable treatment by allowing that company to continue to use the expired permit to draw millions of gallons of water it is not entitled to. According to the suit, the overdraft of water in Strawberry Canyon has compromised the ecosystem supporting endangered and threatened species.
In responding to the suit, Nestlé has marshaled a chain of possession that delineates what it has claimed are water rights of its corporate predecessors extending back to the 1800s. Research by the Sentinel, however, casts the provenance of those rights and their applicability to Strawberry Canyon in doubt.
Nestlé Waters of North America, Inc. has made claims about pre-1914 water rights citing a possessory claim and land patent. Those claims exist in three documents available to the Sentinel.
On March 30, 2015, in a letter to United States Department of Agriculture Office of General Counsel Joshua Rider, Nestlé Waters of North America’s attorney states “Nestle’s rights to the spring waters in Strawberry Canyon trace back to a possessory claim by David Noble Smith recorded on March 21, 1865 (Book “A” of Possessory Claims, p. 75), and a subsequent patent from the United States to Mr. Smith dated February 1, 1882 (Book “B” of Patents, p. 91).”
On May 2, 2016 Nestle’s submitted National Environmental Protection Act special use permit comments, stating, “Nestlé Waters of North America’s ownership of and rights to the waters of Strawberry Canyon derive from California state law. Nestlé Waters of North America’s water rights date back to a possessory claim recorded in 1865, and a subsequent land patent from the United States recorded in 1882.”
On May 6, 2016 the Nestlé Waters of North America amicus curiae brief filed in federal court stated that “Nestlé Waters of North America’s senior appropriative rights to these spring waters traces back over 150 years to a possessory claim recorded in 1865, a United States patent recorded 1882…”
The ultimate authority as to the validity of these claims exists in the historical public record in San Bernardino County. Recently, the Sentinel has found information in that public record which contradicts Nestlé Waters of North America’s recent possessory pre-1914 water rights claims to “spring” water in the San Bernardino National Forest Strawberry Canyon.
On April 19, 2016, the Sentinel sought and obtained access to San Bernardino County Archives to review the cited original possessory claim and land patent. A review of relevant documents demonstrated that Nestlé Waters of North America’s cited possessory claim and land patent by David Noble Smith were for 160 acres located at the “foot” of the mountain (“Ace of Spades” now referred to as the “Arrowhead”) located in Township 1 North Range 4 West in the San Bernardino Meridian (T1N R4W SBM). The Strawberry Canyon wells/tunnels/ “springs” are located in Township 2 N Range 3W SBM (T2N R3W SBM). The possessory claim and land patent is over two miles away and a different township and range than the Strawberry Creek headwater wells/tunnels/“springs.”
Nestlé Waters of North America has cited a possessory claim and land patent that has no water rights claim in T2N R3W SBM.  Furthermore, Nestlé Waters of North America has no pre-1914 water rights claims for the springs in Strawberry Canyon headwaters. The recordation of the David Noble Smith estate to Darby et al. October 12, 1886 is for T1N R4W SBM, which further indicates that there was no claim to the Strawberry Creek headwater springs in T2N R3W SBM. Forest Service Quadrangle maps, state well numbers., and expired permit all show Nestlé Waters of North America wells/tunnels/“springs” in Strawberry Canyon are in T2N R3W, not the location of Nestlé Waters of North America’s cited possessory claim T1N R4W.
The connection between Strawberry Canyon headwaters rights and the possessory claim do not hold water when original documents are examined. Nestlé Waters of North America’s claim to Strawberry Canyon headwater spring rights by possessory claim appears to be erroneously based, as the possessory claim, subsequent land patent and next owner real estate transfer clearly document a different township and range than Nestlé Waters of North America’s Strawberry Creek headwater well/tunnel/“spring” locations.
It thus appears that Nestlé Waters of North America has made a false claim to the United States Forest Service by citing Strawberry Creek headwater springs as “pre-1914 rights” from a possessory claim and patent that are located in a different township and range with no mention of Strawberry Creek headwater springs or water rights anywhere in the original historical record.
Jane Lazgin, director of media and public relations for Nestlé Waters of North America told the Sentinel she did not have access to the referenced documents but that “Arrowhead has vested, senior water rights and has demonstrated continuous beneficial use of those rights since the late 1800s. In California, “pre-1914” water rights are, by law, the most senior water rights in the state. In fact, our water rights pre-date the creation of the San Bernardino National Forest.”
Lazgin continued, “Nestlé Waters pays the United States Forest Service for the use of a narrow, five-foot wide right-of-way on which we maintain a four-inch diameter, stainless steel pipeline. The fee for this right-of-way is established by a schedule of fees set by regulations adopted by the U.S. Forest Service, which is applied to all special use permit holders on United States Forest Service land. Nestlé Waters has been reporting its water use to the State Water Resources Control Board since 1947, through the reporting program specifically established under California law. Nestlé complies with all reporting requirements and continues to report its water use from this spring as mandated by California law.”
Noting that “The State Water Resources Control Board has asked Nestlé Waters for information pertaining to our water rights in the San Bernardino National Forest,” Lazgin said, “We appreciate the opportunity to meet with them on June 16th and to provide any information the board may need. We look forward to a productive conversation but cannot comment further given the pending review.”
In April 2015, after Governor Jerry Brown’s water use reduction mandate was issued, an online community group calling itself the Courage Campaign collected more than 135,000 signatures endorsing a demand that Nestlé discontinue its Southern California bottling operations which utilize water drafted from public lands for which it does not have a current permit. The Courage Campaign petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to utilize its authority in shuttering those operations.
In the face of that request, Nestlé’s water drafting in Strawberry Canyon continued unabated.
In reaction to the Courage Campaign’s action, as well as the lawsuit filed in October 2015, the San Bernardino National Forest initiated a National Environmental Policy Act analysis to determine if the Nestlé Waters North America Special Use Permit should be extended. That permit, if granted, would allow Nestlé to continue to with the extraction and transmission of water using existing improvements in the Strawberry Creek watershed. In addition to authorizing the existing improvements, the permit would require Nestlé to conduct hydrologic and riparian area studies and to modify operations under an adaptive management plan if monitoring showed that water extraction was impacting surface water flow and riparian dependent resources within the National Forest.
When the US. Forest Service announced in March that it would undertake the National Environmental Protection Act study, it said that it would take as long as five years to complete and that in the meantime, that is, for the five year duration, Nestlé would be able to continue to operate under the auspices of its expired special use permit. This was met with protests from environmentalists who maintain the continued water drafting from Strawberry Canyon represents will further perpetuate ecological havoc that has already gone on too long.
For its part, Nestlé disputes that the United States Forest Service has the authority to stop its San Bernardino Mountain water use, citing what it claims are inviolate water rights. Still, the company indicated it would cooperate with the Forest Service in carrying out its survey, though it is not legally bound to do so. “Nestlé Waters North America will commit to adhere to an objective and scientifically sound adaptive management plan, but must do so voluntarily in order to comply with the law,” Nestlé stated in comments regarding the proposed permit renewal process the company submitted to the United States Forest Service on May 2, 2016.

Upland City Officials are disputing the widespread notion that the city’s current arrangement with the concern that cares for the city’s publicly owned trees involves a conflict of interest that has led to the actual or slated destruction of a considerable portion of those trees. Those officials are further downplaying the suggestion that the city is on the verge of deepening its entanglement with that company.

Dr. Fred Roth

Early last month controversy erupted when the city council at its May 9 meeting adjourned into a closed session and was provided with a so-called action report that was authored either by a city consultant or the city attorney. After the council members read the report, all of the copies were collected by top city staff. The council then voted while yet in the closed session, according to city attorney Richard Adams, to “accept” the report. When some residents sought to pry from city officials what, precisely, the implication of accepting the report was, they were rebuffed, and city officials conceded only that the report pertained to the city’s trees.
For many Upland residents, the condition of the city’s publicly-owned trees is a critical consideration. Many consider the so-called urban forest, which consists of all order of trees that line both sides of Euclid Avenue and blanket Euclid’s 53-foot wide median, as the city’s most distinguishing feature. The Euclid median was the brainchild of George and William Chaffey, the founders of Ontario and Upland. The Chaffey Brothers laid out Euclid, running some seven miles from the south end of Ontario north to San Antonio Heights north of Upland at the foothills below Mt. San Antonio, in the 1880s. Originally, the 53-foot wide median boasted a horse-drawn trolley. The trolley has given way to what is referred to as a bridle path but which is utilized mostly as a walking or jogging trail lying between dual rows of trees, including fern pines, silk oaks and California peppers. In South Ontario, both sides of Euclid serve as a dense commercial zone. As Euclid progresses northward, in north Ontario and through most of Upland, Euclid traverses several designated historic districts, with craftsman homes and civic buildings, including some dating from the late 19th Century lining either side of the avenue. The nearly seven-mile-long median is considered one of the most resplendent such public amenities in the nation, comparing favorably to similar but less substantial medians in Palo Alto, Dearborn, Michigan and Philadelphia and rivaling tree lined avenues and boulevards internationally, such as those in Paris, Melbourne and Park Lane in England.
In the days prior to the May 9 meeting, either city employees or the city’s consultant had marked in excess of 120 trees with orange dots, a symbol arborists recognize as designating a tree for removal. This had resulted, prior to the May 9 meeting, in a spate of emails and exchanges on social media, alerting the community to the city’s proposed action.
During the open public session of the May 9 meeting, which followed the closed session at which the action report was accepted by the council, Rusty Cushing, a member of Upland’s tree street committee, publicly resigned from that panel, stating that the marked trees were in fact slated for removal. He said that the street tree committee had been kept in the dark about the plan to remove the trees. While acknowledging that many or all of the city’s trees were somewhat worse for wear because of the drought, he insisted that the trees were not diseased and should not be considered eligible for removal. He blasted city engineer/public works director Rosemary Hoerning for having long neglected the trees by not having pruned and trimmed them in a timely manner. He said that city officials, led by the public works department, were moving to irresponsibly remove the trees rather than attempting to save them. An agronomist who has taught horticulture at Cal Poly, Cushing accused Hoerning of hiring a consultant, Fred Roth, to provide her with a disingenuous report justifying the removal of the trees. He said the tree committee and the Upland population at large included professional arborists whose assessment of the trees’ conditions contradicted the conclusion of the city’s consultant.
During the ensuing two weeks, city officials expressed dismay at the adverse publicity and press attention that resulted from Cushing’s broadside. Cushing had layered inaccuracies into his statement, city officials said, misleading many into believing the city was going to take far more drastic steps than they actually intended. City manager Rod Butler, while referencing “major issues” with both trees in the median and along both sides of Euclid as well as on the city’s west side that involved “decay… aging… [and] the drought,” accused Cushing of engaging in hyperbole and scare tactics. Rather than removing somewhere between 120 and 180 trees, the plan was actually to take out just 76 of them, a mere 2.17 percent of 3,500 trees growing along Euclid or in its median in Upland, Butler insisted. In an apparent attempt to backpedal, city officials began removing or painting over some of the orange dots.
Begrudgingly acknowledging that they had opened themselves to criticism because of the manner in which they had proceeded with marking the trees and not communicating with the city’s residents, city officials nevertheless faulted Cushing for needlessly alarming the public, accusing him of engaging in a personal vendetta against Hoerning and being both overbearing and tactless in his approach.
This elicited a response from Cushing, who, having unearthed that the city paid $38,000 to Roth for his assessment, reiterated that there were Upland residents and community volunteers who were certicated and qualified to inspect the city’s trees, including a member of the street tree committee, for no charge. Roth’s hiring, Cushing said, “was a waste of money,” intended to provide a foreordained conclusion that would alleviate the public works department of carrying out the extensive work to save the trees that were for too long neglected, as well as the maintenance effort to prevent more trees from being removed in the future. “How much tree trimming and tree planting could we do for $38,000?” Cushing asked.
Cushing and a certificated arborist who lives in Upland, John Ickis, have been highly critical of not only Roth but the company, West Coast Arborists, with which the city contracts for tree maintenance.
Over a period of several years, Upland had a contract with Anaheim-based West Coast Arborists for the maintenance of its trees, including during the crucial period corresponding with the drought and what many residents have observed as the years of neglect that led to the decline of the urban forest. Since the contract has expired, West Coast Arborists has continued in the role of maintaining the trees, doing so on a month-to-month basis at a rate consistent with the per month prorated cost contained in the expired contract. According to West Coast, it is, by working at the rate specified in a contract signed several years ago, providing Upland with a discount. There have been hints that the company is pressuring the city to again enter into a long term contract. One report is that under discussion is a contract that would entail the City of Upland, West Coast Arborists and the City of Fontana entering into a tripartite contract that would, because of economies of scale and a longer term guarantee, provide both Upland and Fontana with the services of West Coast Arborists for an extended period of time at a price below that which either city might negotiate separately.
Cushing and Ickis have expressed their view that further and deeper entanglement between Upland and West Coast Arborists is not advisable. The neglect of the trees during that company’s tenure in Upland is at the basis of the current urban forest crisis, they point out. Moreover, the terms of the arrangement between the city and West Coast allows West Coast to harvest the wood from the trees that are cut down for processing into lumber at the sawmill the company operates, and to thereafter sell the wood at a considerable profit.
Cushing said he is astounded that city officials do not recognize this as an unacceptable conflict of interest. That they do not, he said, is a combination of their ignorance with regard to trees in general, the lumber industry as well as their misplaced trust in Roth as well as West Coast Arborists.
“Lumber from healthy living trees is far more valuable than the wood from a dead tree,” Cushing said. Noting that Upland’s urban forest is composed of many types of trees, including liquid amber, silk oak, fern pines and California pepper, Cushing pointed out that the lion’s share of the trees slated for removal are the California pepper and the silk oaks. The silk oaks are extremely rare and valuable, Cushing said, and make excellent lumber, representing a sale potential of several thousand dollars.
“Those are trees they want for their sawmills, so those are the ones that are going to get cut down,” Cushing said.
Ickis told the city council last month, “These trees are of very high value and should not be sold as furniture or sculptures by your unethical tree contractor.”
Upland Assistant City Manager Jeannette Vagnozzi insisted that “no conflict” existed. The city had used, she said “separate arborists” in terms of making the determination as to which trees should be preserved or removed.
“West Coast Arborists do not determine which trees are going to be removed,” she said. “It is Dr Roth who is examining the trees. He gets no kickback from West Coast Arborists for any determination he makes.”
Vagnozzi said charging the city with neglecting the trees was both unfair and inaccurate. All trees in the city, she said were being trimmed, manicured or pruned on a five year rotating basis. “Saying they are not being taken care of is not true,” she said. “We have a grid maintenance system. She conceded that the trees were not being provided with optimal care but that it was adequate.
“When you have financial difficulties you have to balance your resources,” she said. “What we are doing is sufficient. It is an acceptable system used by many municipalities. However, in addition to a system of maintenance, the trees have to be assessed periodically for overall health.”
She defended the hiring of Roth, saying the job of evaluating the city’s public trees was too vast to be carried out by volunteers who have other professional and time commitments. Moreover, she said, Roth is highly qualified and utilizing him in that role provided the city with indemnification that using volunteers would not.
She dismissed as “sensationalism” the charge that the city was looking to destroy trees pell-mell. “Ask yourself:” she said, “Why would we want to destroy these trees that so many people in this city love and that is such a big part of our community identity?”
She dismissed suggestions that the withholding of the action report that was reviewed in the May 9 closed session was an illegitimate effort to keep the destruction of the trees secret until their removal was a fait accompli. Of note, she did not justify withholding the report on the basis of the liability issue some have alleged the report dealt with, an impression that was furthered by city attorney Richard Adams intimating at the time that the report pertained to a significant issue of potential litigation. Rather, Vagnozzi said, the report was withheld because it was in draft form at that time and for discussion with city council and legal counsel from a liability standpoint. She said that the report is completed and would be publicly released at the June 13 council meeting pending council approval to do so.
As to the suggestion that Upland is about to double down on its relationship with West Coast Arborists by entering into a three-way contract with the company and the City of Fontana, Vagnozzi said, “That has not officially been discussed. It might have been part of a list of options.”
She said West Coast Arborists continues to work for Upland “on a month-to-month basis.”
Nick Alago, an Upland resident and West Coast Arborist employee assigned to oversee Upland’s trees, told the Sentinel, “Our contract is up and we have agreed to work under the terms of that contract on a month-to-month basis until the city signs a new contract, either with us or some other company. We weren’t going to just leave the city hanging.”
To inquiries as to whether West Coast Arborists was progressing toward a tripartite contract involving his company, Upland and Fontana, Alago said, “I think what you are referring to is a piggyback arrangement with other cities. When we sign a new contract with one city, another city can adopt that contract. They are able to do that within one year. Whether Upland is considering following Fontana, I could not tell you. I am not involved in the inner city works.”
Alago was dismissive of suggestions that some order of conflict existed as a consequence of his company operating a lumber processing plant, and that this conflict had resulted in healthy California pepper and Silk Oaks being sacrificed to augment West Coast Arborist’s bottom line.
“That wood is junk,” Alago said. “Silk oak makes you itch. Neither of those woods make premium lumber. For anybody to say that, they don’t know anything about wood. Oak and elm make a usable product. We do have a mill. We try to recycle. When we get wood that is good for lumber, we deliver that back to the community.”
He said Upland was striving to perform adequate maintenance and upkeep of its trees.
“The city has developed a grid preventative maintenance program system,” he said. “They have five grids. We trim to acceptable International Society of Arboriculture standards. If someone has any objections, they should address it with me personally.”
Dr. Roth on June 9 told the Sentinel that he and his two colleagues had completed his survey of Upland’s trees the previous day. He said he could not say with absolute exactitude how many trees would need to come down. “I cannot say at this point because I still need to compile the last three days of my examination data,” Roth said. He ventured an estimate of somewhat fewer than 180 trees needing to be removed. “I would say less than 80 silk oaks and as for the pepper trees, I very much doubt the number will exceed 100,” he said of the numbers that will be consigned for removal from the Euclid median and from the parkways lining both sides of Euclid.
The pepper trees occupy the median and the silk oaks are confined to the parkways.
Roth concurred that the tree controversy in Upland hinges on Euclid Avenue.
“Euclid is ground zero,” he said.
“Some things can be done for the trees,” he said. “Many of the silk oaks can be mitigated by pruning. I doubt that we will exceed that number [180]. I think it will be very close to that.”
Roth objected to the application of the term “diseased” to the trees. “I am a plant pathologist,” he said. “Diseases of wood are every bit as complex as diseases of animals. I might say that many of these trees are in decline, but I am not engaged in diagnosing disease. My charge was to identify, to determine what trees represent a risk to the community. I want to make it clear I was not diagnosing the trees. Their condition is not a concern beyond conditions that cause poor structure. A healthy tree can still have poor structure. Tree health is only a part of that issue. We are also looking at root involvement as part of structural safety. Unless people have adequate training they may get confused on that point.”
Roth cleared the city of having neglected its urban forest.
“I do not think what you have was caused by a lack of maintenance by the city,” he said. “Some of these trees were planted 130 years ago. If we are talking about recent maintenance, it is not neglect causing the current concern. On the other hand, I think I can say that some of the poor structure and hazard was caused by poor treatment by Caltrans over a long period long prior to the city assuming responsibility.”
Euclid Avenue, also known as State Route 83, was formerly maintained by California Department of Transportation. The state relinquished it to local control in 2008.
“Caltrans topped the trees severely during their time,” Roth said. “Some of the structural defects are the direct result of the trees being topped.”
Resident concern that some of the trees are to be removed is misplaced, Roth said.
“My understanding is the city’s intention, the city’s goal, is to preserve the stand of trees,” Roth said. “Removed trees will be replaced. On Euclid, my understanding is pepper trees will be replaced with pepper trees and silk oaks will be replaced with silk oaks. There is no question that the goal of the city is to maintain the character of Euclid Avenue. My philosophy is no tree can be maintained into perpetuity. Trees for a variety of reasons will die or become dangerous. You can’t maintain them for ever. Even the redwoods who live more than 2,000 years will come down eventually. But you can keep a stand alive and thriving. That requires replacement of the individual trees that become dangerous or go into decline. You can keep the stand intact. That is what the city is trying to do and at same time trying to avoid injury and property damage from trees that have been identified as unacceptable. I could take you onto Euclid Avenue and point them out. It doesn’t take an expert to see what is likely to happen. People should not see a single tree as a memorial to someone. If you want to have someone remembered, plant a grove of trees. We can keep a grove alive by replacing the individuals as they need to be. There is nothing wrong with having younger trees replacing the older trees.”
In response to the suggestion that there were certified arborists living in the community that could have taken on the evaluative assignment he had conducted, Roth said, “I don’t know what the dedication level would be of someone serving as a volunteer for the city. I don’t know what the number of those interested would be. With my two colleagues, we worked more than two months to do the survey. That would seem beyond the resources of a volunteer or three volunteers. That is just my opinion. There were three of us doing the work. I would not think to question the dedication or expertise of a volunteer, but it would be an extreme commitment if they were to do this on a volunteer basis.”
Roth was dismissive of the accusations that the city, he and its contract tree maintenance workers were seeking to harm the urban forest.
“Let’s make an assumption, that is false to begin with, that the city has an idea ahead of time of what answer they want here, which is to remove the trees, and another false assumption that they have hired a consultant who will give them that answer,” Roth postulated. “Under those two false assumptions, why would a staff member want to remove trees that are highly treasured by the city’s residents and make a policy change to remove those trees, unless that staff member wanted to be fired? I cannot see any city personnel wanting this firestorm. It is beyond me that people are saying the city wanted to remove trees and that they found some specious reason to do that. It would have been more sensible for them to ignore the hazards and liabilities and to just let them fall. What these people are saying is beyond credibility.”
Roth said that it was true that the silk oak lumber “can be used for furniture.” He said, however, “It cannot be used for structural use. It has not been tested for that. Silk oaks are not widely used. They are not widely used here. There simply is not an industry that uses silk oaks for that purpose in California. People have used silk oaks for furniture in Hawaii, where it is considered an invasive species. It does make nice looking cabinets and furniture. I don’t know of anyone using it commercially here, though. The question has arisen as to what happens to trees when they are cut down. I am aware that West Coast Arborists’ operation has a small sawmill, but the product that comes out of that sawmill is not a profit center for them. They rescue some wood from the urban forest to make small items they use for promotion.”
As for this constituting a conflict of interest, Roth said, “There is none, whatsoever. I don’t know who would be conflicted. I am not part of West Coast Arborists. I and my associates are making an independent evaluation. They are simply doing the work we are recommending. I see no problem if they use some of the wood for furniture that might go to be used as firewood otherwise.”
Roth said the criticism that was leveled at him had reached the level of absurdity.
“I can tell you some of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard about myself are part of this episode,” he said. “I have been besmirched as being a conspirator in this. I have heard this statement that the logs from these trees are worth a thousand dollars each. This wood is not good for structures. No industry is cutting them up and making money on what is coming out of the urban forest. All we are engaged in is an effort to keep the stand functioning and preserve the character of Euclid, not just today, but tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow, basically for the children of people who are here today. Some people hate change. Removing a tree is clearly a change, but it is a change that preserves the stand.”
Cushing told the Sentinel that the true reason behind the city’s push to remove so many trees, which totals more than 350 trees around the city including the approximate 180 on Euclid, is that “the public works division wants to decrease the city’s tree inventory to reduce maintenance costs.”
Cushing said the city could have headed off the problems it is now facing by “properly pruning and trimming the trees on a consistent basis.”
Ickis disputed both Alago and Roth’s characterization of the quality of silk oak lumber, pointing out that “The silk oak, Grevillea robusta, is a tree that produces an attractively figured, easily worked wood, which was once a leading face veneer in world trade. It was marketed as ‘lacewood.’ They are going to sell those trees.”
Ickis echoed Cushing’s contention that the city had in large measure created the crisis by neglecting the upkeep and maintenance of the trees. He contradicted Vagnozzi, saying, “She is not qualified to make statements about the quality of pruning that is being done. She knows nothing about trees. What are her qualifications to be making these statements? Does she know how often the trees should be pruned based on the way they have been trained or pruned in the past? Ask her how the trees were pruned prior to the city taking over Euclid from Caltrans eight years ago. How many times has the city pruned the trees since Caltrans gave it millions of dollars when Euclid was given to the city? A 5-year cycle is not ‘adequate.’ Ask her to prove they were trimmed in the last five years. They have not been ‘adequately’ pruned in the last five years. The silk oaks have not been pruned in way over five years and that is why branches keep falling off of them, creating a ‘liability.’ This is all about reducing their inventory and cutting down on maintenance cost. These trees are very difficult to trim properly because they are so large and haven’t been trimmed in a long time.”
Ickis asked, “Is there anyone at the city who can make the determination that West Coast Arborist’s practices are ‘adequate?’ Nobody watches them because no one on city staff cares or is qualified to care for trees. It’s like asking the fox to watch the hen house.”

In the 2016 Primary election held June 7, 283,720 or 36.18 percent of San Bernardino County’s 784,130 registered voters participated. Of those, 116,589, or 14.87 percent of the county’s voters overall, went to the polls. The remainder of those voting, 167,131 or 21.31 percent of voters overall, cast mail-in ballots.
With a single exception, incumbents fared well, with a few county officials scoring an outright victory by capturing a majority of votes cast in their races to avoid a November runoff. All of the other incumbents captured the most votes, but because of a multiplicity of candidates in their particular races or because of California’s electoral rules that qualify all second place finishers in state races for a runoff, they are thus consigned to a final electoral contest in November against the runner-up.
In overwhelmingly Republican Congressional District 8, 95,939 votes were cast, giving Republican incumbent Paul Cook 42.81 percent of the vote, or 41,072 voter endorsements, which was more than twice the 20,248 votes claimed by another Republican, Tim Donnelly, who came in second with 21.11 percent of the vote. In early tallying, Donnelly lagged behind Democrat Rita Ramirez-Dean, who slipped behind Donnelly to 21 percent of the vote as final straggling votes were counted. Ramirez-Dean captured 100 fewer votes that Donnelly, with 20,148. Roger La Plante and John Pinkerton polled 5.29 percent and 9.79 percent, respectively.
In Congressional District 31, the Democratic incumbent, Pete Aguilar, garnered a comfortable edge over the runner-up, Republican Paul Chabot, whom Aguilar defeated in 2014. This time, Aguilar brought down 41,049 votes, or 43.21 percent, to Chabot’s 22,487 votes or 23.67 percent. Spoiling an outright win for Aguilar was the presence in the race of former Democratic Congressman Joe Baca, who ran this time around as a Republican, getting 11,219 votes or 11.81 percent. Sean Flynn, a Republican, polled 10,567 votes or 11.12 percent. And Kaiser Ahmed, a Democrat, received 9,672 votes or 10.18 percent. There were 94,994 votes cast in the race.
In Congressional District 35, Democratic Incumbent Norma Torres trounced Tyler Fischella, the only other candidate, 39,478 San Bernardino County votes to 14,436. A major portion of Congressional District 35 lies outside San Bernardino County.
In State Senate District 23, Republican incumbent Mike Morrell cruised to a convincing victory by ringing up 52,521 votes or 55.12 percent to the 28,607 votes or 30.02 percent received by Ronald J. O’Donnell and 14,154 votes of Mark Westwood, representing 14.85 percent. Morrell and O’Connell will tilt against one another in November.
In State Assembly District 33, Republican incumbent Jay Obernolte soundly defeated Scott Markovich, a former Republican running as a Democrat, 37,701 votes to 23,618, a 61.48 percent to 38.52 percent victory. Obernolte and Markovich will have at each other once again in the fall.
The race in State Assembly District 40 proved the sole anomaly in the trend that favored incumbents in San Bernardino County. Marc Steinorth, the Republican one-term incumbent, lost in his scrape with Democratic challenger Abigail Medina by a razor-thin margin, with Medina capturing 32,972 votes, or 50.1 percent to Steinorth’s 32,835 or 49.9. In November, Medina will seek a replay of what happened Tuesday; Steinorth will try to reverse the outcome.
Chad Mayes, the Republican incumbent in State Assembly District 42, blasted his way past challengers Greg Rodriguez and Jeff Hewitt with 12,422 votes, equal to 60.06 percent. Rodriquez came in second with 6,390 or 30.89 percent and Hewitt claimed 1,871 votes or 9.05 percent. A Mayes/Rodriguez reprise will play out later this year.
In State Assembly District 47, Democrat Cheryl Brown fell less than six percent short of capturing a majority of the vote, netting 20,125 votes or 44.23 percent of the 45,501 votes cast in San Bernardino County. Another Democrat, Eloise Gomez Reyes, achieved the right to a run-off election in November by getting 15,706 votes or 34.64 percent. Aissa Chanel Sanchez received 9,616 votes or 21.13 percent.
Also of interest were two Assembly races in which fewer than half of the district’s voters live in San Bernardino County.
In Assembly District 52, incumbent Democrat Freddie Rodriguez comfortably outpolled Ontario City Councilman Paul Vincent Avila in San Bernardino County 17,880 votes or 61.92 percent to 10,998 votes or 38.08 percent. They will slug it out once more in November.
In heavily Republican State Assembly District 55, which covers portions of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, no incumbent was running. Two of those candidates have a claim to fame in San Bernardino County: Chino Hills Councilman Ray Marquez and West Covina Councilman Mike Spence, who is the chief of staff to Fourth District San Bernardino County Supervisor Kurt Hagman. Marquez polled second in the five-man race in San Bernardino County, but did not qualify for the November race when the results from all three counties were tallied. Marquez had 2,840 votes or 24.03 percent in San Bernardino County, which bettered Spence’s 2,166 or 18.33 percent. Both were soundly behind Gregg D. Fritchle, who received 4,343 or 36.7 percent in San Bernardino County. Fritchle, a Democrat, and Phillip Chen, a Republican, will face off in November.
In the race for First District San Bernardino County supervisor, incumbent Robert Lovingood picked up 18,281 votes or 37.78 percent, which was good for first place but not enough to foreclose a run-off in November. He will face second-place finisher, former Victorville Councilwoman Angela Valles, who received 12,370 votes or 25.57 percent. They were trailed by former Apple Valley Mayor Rick Roelle, Valles’ husband, who received 7,012 votes or 14.49 percent, and Hesperia City Council members Paul Russ and Bill Holland, who garnered 5,481 votes or 11.33 percent and 5,238 votes or 10.83 percent, respectively.
In the County’s Third Supervisorial District, incumbent James Ramos overwhelmed challenger Donna Munoz, 40,236 votes or 65.03 percent to 21,633 votes or 34.97 percent.
Fifth District Supervisor Josie Gonzales had no competition and 30,666 voters endorsed her candidacy.

BARSTOW—Despite its status as an outback desert railroad town, the City of Barstow has nonetheless established itself as being on the cutting edge in San Bernardino County – and elsewhere in California and the United States – in terms of gender equality in its public affairs.
In 1966, Ida Pleasant was elected Barstow’s mayor, the first female mayor in San Bernardino County history, paving the way for her eventual successors, Katie Islas-Yent and current mayor Julie Hackbarth-McIntyre.
In 2007, then-Barstow city manager Hector Rodriguez selected Dianne Burns, who had spent two decades with the Los Angeles Police Department as a patrol officer, homicide detective, sergeant and lieutenant of a gang suppression unit, to replace Lee Gibson as police chief. Rodriguez selected Burns within four weeks of Gibson’s May 1, 2007 departure, but it took a majority of the city council another month to achieve a consensus about Burns’ suitability for the position. Her résumé included credentials as a gang task force leader on the mean streets of Los Angeles and possession of a law degree, and she was deemed qualified. She was given a contract effective July 2 of that year.
The department was 11 short of its authorized strength of 38 officers when she took command. Things did not go all that smoothly for her, as at least some of the department’s officers had difficulty accepting a woman as their commander in the oftentimes machismo-driven atmosphere of a law enforcement agency. Burns attempted to work through that challenge and instituted several positive changes that were hailed by the community. The department gained five officers over the first 21 months of her residency as chief and she was able to get the city council to invest in bringing the department to full staffing in May 2009 when six officers were sworn in.
Burns instituted a shooting and tactical training school just outside of Hinkley and mandated that officers take target practice at least once every two months. She then rewrote the department’s policies and procedures manual, which had not been updated since 1983, and she co-authored an internal affairs manual for the department, which until that time was non-existent. She simultaneously sought to improve the interdepartmental relationship with the sheriff’s station in Barstow and encouraged officers in the department to become actively involved in community programs such as Cops for Kids, Neighborhood Watch,  Cook and Serve for the Homeless, and local neighborhood street fairs.
Burns tenure in Barstow had a less then stellar end. In July 2011, Burns went on vacation, which was not anticipated to last for more than two weeks, and did not return at the end of her summer hiatus, When she did not return, city manager Curt Mitchell placed her on administrative leave. She remained absent from the department for more than six months while Mitchell and the council conducted a review of an unspecified issue relating to her job performance.
On February 24, 2012, as Mitchell’s assessment of Burns was drawing to a close, the Barstow Police Officers Association, representing 30 officers, corporals and detectives, and the Barstow Police Management Association, representing six sergeants and lieutenants, provided a vote of “no confidence” in Burns’ ability to continue to lead the department. The groups then sent a letter to Mitchell referencing the votes and excoriating Burns for “poor performance” and “extreme favoritism,” as well as a “hostile work environment” that the unions said was the product of her oversight of the department.
Despite the insurrection, Mitchell restored Burns to her position on February 27, 2012, mindful that her contract was up on July 2 and that she would be due for another review before it would be renewed on July 2. Mitchell had not yet completed that review nor arrived at a decision about whether he would recommend to the city council that Burns be retained when she tendered her resignation.
Despite the cloud under which her career in Barstow ended, Burns, and the city broke the gender barrier in the ranks of San Bernardino law enforcement.
This week, Barstow again turned a corner with respect to gynic empowerment.
With Barstow Fire Chief Rich Ross now set to retire on June 19, Captain Jamie Williams has been selected to serve as the Barstow Fire Protection District’s interim fire chief.
Williams is less likely to encounter resistance from those she will supervise than did Burns in her role, having long served in the department. and having been accepted as “one of the boys.” In 2009, Williams was elected president of the firemen’s union, the Barstow Professional Firefighters Association
A 1998 graduate of Barstow High School, Williams immediately obtained employment as a firefighter and at the age of 36 has an 18-year career in fire service. She began as a paid-call firefighter in Hinkley and later became a firefighter at Fort Irwin, where she attained the rank of captain. One year later, she went to work for the Barstow Fire Protection District. That was in 2008. Her last eight years schooled her with every aspect of the district’s operations.
Williams said Barstow can count on more woman firefighters in the future, as the recruitment effort has broadened. She said the department’s primary recruiting tool is the Fire Explorer Program.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve always had a female in the [Explorer] ranks,” Williams said. “Usually we have one to two. Right now we have two. One just got into Fresno State. This is her second semester. So, we’re really excited for and proud of her. The other female just got promoted to paid call. Of the new recruits it’s nine to one, so we have nine males and one female.”

David Franklin, who had grown into an institution at Cable Airport two decades ago and remained its most visible figure, died last week from what is being described as a brain aneurysm. He was 54.
Franklin’s professional life was one devoted to aeronautics. His course was set early when, while he was yet in his junior year at Walnut High School, he obtained his pilot license at the age of 16. While working at Alpha Beta, a supermarket, he obtained his two-year degree at nearby Mt. Sac and then attended the University of Illinois at Carbondale, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in aviation management.
Carol Joyner, a designated pilot examiner and flight instructor who taught at Mt. San Antonio College, remembered him. “I knew him since the mid-1980s,” she said. “He was a student of mine in my flight instructor ground school class at Mt. SAC. He was extremely bright. Things came to him very easily. His world was aviation. He read everything he could possibly read. The course he took from me was devoted to how you can be a good flight instructor. He picked up on everything I was trying to teach him and I can tell you he proved to be a very good one. There are hundreds of pilots who learned to fly from him.”
Franklin was infatuated with all aspects of aviation, Joyner said, but hit his absolute stride in the role of a classroom instructor. He taught in the aviation department at Mt. SAC as well as with Runway 3-7, a flight run out of both Brackett Airport in LaVerne and at Cable Airport.
“He was an outstanding flight instructor and even better ground school teacher,” Joyner said. “Many of his students have gone on to careers with the airlines. He was also the unicom operator at Cable on the weekends, which is the airport adviser providing weather, wind and landing advisory for departing and incoming planes. He instructed pilots on where to land and park and then greeted them and helped tie the planes down.”
Joyner said of Franklin, “He was like an honorary son. When my husband and I would travel, he would take care of our house and look after our dogs and cats. When my husband passed away, he would take care of my pets whenever I had to travel. He took care of my airplane. We had breakfast together every Sunday when I came to the airport. If I had problems, he was always there to help.”
Rhonda Shore was the manager of Runway 3-7 from 1988 until it closed out in 2008. She oversaw the company’s operations, including Franklin’s work, both as a classroom instructor and in handling what Shore called “desk work,” i.e., dispatch assignments and paperwork.
“His work was always detailed and complete,” she said of Franklin’s paperwork. “In some cases you would come back later – months or even years later – and you did not have to call him because what he did was so detailed and explicit there were no questions.”
Shore remembered Franklin “as the kindest soul I have ever known. He could not help people enough. He did whatever he could to afford people the benefit of his knowledge. I don’t think I ever heard him say anything negative about anybody. I worked with him for 20 years. Twice, after he was ground instructor, his class was given questionnaires asking to rate him as an instructor. These were kept confidential and Dave never saw them. There was one, a single student, who said something unfavorable about him. The rest were laudatory, but Dave never saw any of those.”
When the Runway 3-7 operation was consolidated into a single operation at Cable Airport in 2003, she said Franklin insisted that she accompany him on the short hop to Upland, the symbolic last flight out of Runway 3-7 at Brackett. And Shore cited a familiar Franklin trait. “He would take care of my cats when I went away for a week or two,” she said.
Patsy, Dave”s mother, said her son had two passions in life. The first was playing the drums, which he did as a member of the school band from fourth grade until his senior year at Walnut High, from which he graduated in 1980. She shared a wistful memory of her ten-year-old carrying his drum to school, with the instrument strapped around his neck, the bottom of the percussion device hovering a few inches above the ground with every step.
His second passion was flying, which she said, might have arisen from her own thwarted desire to take to the skies on a regular basis. “I wanted to be a stewardess, but I got married and in those days a stewardess couldn’t be married,” she said, hinting that just maybe she had lived vicariously through her son.
“Dave was born to be a pilot,” she said. “He taught ground school at Mt. SAC for fifteen years. He loved teaching people to fly. He participated in the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Flying Association as the chief judge for their yearly competition.”
Her first object and up-close illustration of how dedicated and skilled her son was came on a flight she and her husband made to Oklahoma with Franklin at the controls of a small plane in 1981, during the air traffic controllers’ strike. The sky was blanketed with cloud cover as Dave flew the plane on a straight line toward Albuquerque but was then obliged, for technical reasons in some fashion involved with the air controllers’ strike, to switch his flight orientation to an alternate direction finding beacon emanating from El Paso. In his head, Franklin did the necessary fuel capacity calculations that allowed him to utilize a somewhat longer and roundabout route to their destination.
Patsy said Franklin was offered a position as Senator Dianne Feinstein’s pilot but had to decline because of his commitment to being a ground instructor.
More recently, Patsy said, she had accompanied Franklin on a blimp flight during which Dave, after a lifetime of piloting and functioning within the context of heavier-than-air aircraft, was allowed by the pilot to take the helm of the dirigible. “Dave explained he was a certified pilot and they let him fly it after instructing him that he was not to touch any of the ropes connected to the helium bladders or the ballast,” she said.
Mike Pattison, who was a former student and colleague who is now an airline pilot, said, “ I first met Dave flying out of Cable Air when I was nine years old and he was the dispatcher at Cable Air. When I got my private and instrument ratings at Cable Air Flight School he was my ground school instructor. I became a flight instructor and worked beside him for twelve years. He was a mentor, a friend, someone you could count on full of knowledge. He was kind, with a strong work ethic. He was a consummate professional and a motivator.”
Having flown with Franklin around a dozen times and having been guided through takeoffs and landings hundreds of times by him, Pattison said, “He was the embodiment of Cable Airport. He was Cable Airport. He represented Cable Airport on so many different levels.”
Franklin’s graveside funeral is to take place at 1 p.m. on Monday June 13 at Rose Hills Cemetery.

Rialto City Councilman Shawn O’Connell, whose indomitable spirit was in evidence as a police officer and again displayed itself after he was paralyzed from the waist down in an off-roading accident, shuffled off his mortal coil late last week.
O’Connell was scheduled to participate in a Friends of the Rialto Library event Saturday Night, June 4. He never arrived. This alarmed those who knew the ever-punctual O’Connell and a missing person report was filed that evening.
Rialto police were unable to locate O’Connell anywhere in Rialto. A bulletin reporting on his missing person status was more widely distributed.
On Sunday morning, Rialto police checked at Kaiser Hospital in Fontana, determining that O’Connell was not there. Around 11 a.m., they went to Loma Linda to see if he was perhaps at Loma Linda University Medical Center. While they were passing through the 24800 block of Redlands Boulevard, one officer noticed what appeared to be O’Connell’s van. At 1:09 a.m. an officer looked inside the van. O’Connell showed no sign of being conscious and was unresponsive. Medical personnel arrived within minutes, after which point O’Connell was pronounced dead at the scene.
The coroner’s office will conduct an autopsy to determine how O’Connell died.
He had been forced into retirement after he was injured in a rollover accident in 2006. He refused to
accept the limitations fate had imposed on him and purchased a van which was outfitted with toggle controls that allowed him to operate it.
That ethos of rugged independence was not trouble free. In December 2013, as he was driving to Victorville to the home of a friend who was to do some adjustments to his wheel chair, he began experiencing back spasms and lost control of his van, which careened down an embankment and into open brush near Glen Helen. He lay incapacitated for more than fifteen hours, with his van lodged out of sight of passersby. A search was initiated for him but it was not until he was able to locate and activate his cell phone to call Rialto Police for help that anyone had any contact with him. After he was instructed him to dial 911, the California Highway Patrol was able to use a device it possesses to triangulate his location. He was hospitalized with a broken vertebrae, bruised lungs and a bruised kidney.
In 2012 he had run successfully for a position on the Rialto City Council.
As a police officer, O’Connell had run a patrol team and was a crisis negotiator for the SWAT team. He was named Rialto Officer of the Year in 1998.
A memorial service will be held for O’Connell at 11 a.m. Tuesday June 14 at Sunrise Church, located at 2759 N. Ayala Drive in Rialto.

By Count Friedrich von Olsen
Oh! What a difference a century makes! Here we are in 2016. Would anyone have even slightly suspected I would make it this far? I doubt it. If someone had suggested to me when I was 16, or 25, or 33, or 47, or 65 or 75 for that matter, that I would still be walking around in 2016, I likely would have broken into a paroxysm of laughter so severe I would have expired on the spot! Yet, here I am…
2016, an even year, one divisible moreover by 4 and thus an Olympic year, and yes, a presidential election year. So, as of this week, the decks are cleared and we know with certainty, or as much certainty as one might have, that Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, will square off against Donald Trump, the Republican. I have in past columns let my feelings about Ms. Clinton be known. And I am bound by the 11th Commandment from speaking ill of a fellow Republican…
Perhaps, gentle reader, you might use your powers of searing focus and ineluctable deduction to fathom my full sentiments this way: This being 2016, one feels invited to make a comparison to 1916, which, alas, seems like only yesterday to one such as myself. Do you recall who the Democrats’ nominee was that year? How about the Republican nominee? You need not cudgel your brains nor consult an encyclopedia or almanac. I will tell thee: Woodrow Wilson in the blue corner and Charles Evans Hughes in the red corner…
These were men of substance, of bearing, of vision, of character. They were good men. They were great men, even if Wilson had the flaw of being a Democrat. That age stands in stark contrast to this one. The choice for voters in 1916 represented an embarrassment of riches. The choice in 2016? I am tempted to say that this choice is simply an embarrassment…
Ahh, what a difference a mere century makes…

Joseph Wilson was one of the early heavy lifters in San Bernardino County. His name is associated with another family surname – Van Leuven.
With a daughter of the Van Leuven family, in three generations he managed to increase the population of San Bernardino County by more than twenty, all within a monogamous setting. Originally Mormons, the Wilson and Van Leuvens defied the polygamous social order that was then in vogue with the church, risking the wrath of the church’s elders but yet managing to survive and thrive.
Joseph Wilson was born at Richmond. Ohio, March 18, 1837 and passed over in San Bernardino County on October 26, 1899. He married Rhoda Van Leuven, who was born in Camden, Ontario, Canada, December 24, 1838, and died in California November 21, 1918.
Joseph’s father, Bushrod Washington Wilson, was raised in the faith of the Mormons and was selected for missionary work. He sojourned to England, where he had sought to make converts of the nonbelievers there. Upon returning to the United States, he found that Brigham Young had led his followers out of Missouri to Salt Lake. Arriving in Utah, he was mortified to learn that polygamy had become a widespread practice and was shocked that it had been instituted by Young. This led to a crisis in faith and he burned his tracts and books secretly, disavowing Mormonism.
Upon securing food and an outfit in April 1855, Bushrod drove with ox teams into California, running the risk of death from Mormons as well as Indians. Indeed, he experienced trouble with the Indians, his cousin, a doctor in the party, being shot and wounded. A daughter died of the cholera and there was untold suffering to all the surviving members of the company.
The year preceding the arrival of the Wilson family Benjamin Van Levuen with many others of the Mormon Church crossed the plains with ox teams in 1853, spending one year at Salt Lake to raise grain and food for their further journey, and thus continuing with wagons over the deserts and mountains to California. Mrs. Van Levuen while driving a wagon ahead of the rest of the party was attacked by Indians, but two of her nephews came to her rescue. They traveled day and night until the stock was exhausted and reached California in 1854.
It is said that as the party came out of the desert through Cajon Pass, Rhoda Van Leuven stood by her father looking over the green valley of San Bernardino and exclaimed that it was her wish to live and die in the beautiful region and she had her wish granted.
Joseph Wilson and Rhoda Van Leuven were married January 1, 1857 and at once began housekeeping in Old San Bernardino near the Mission. Joseph had ten acres and his wife twenty acres given her by her father. This land was on the old Mission Road in what is now the West Redlands District. The ten acre homestead is just east of the Mission school.
In 1857, when President James Buchanan threatened to have the U.S. Army invade Utah, Brigham Young requested that colonists from outlying areas return to Utah to help deal with the crisis. The San Bernardino clerk recorded that the colonists received word on 30 October to return and that the first wagons left on 3 November. The last entry in the clerk’s journal reads, “December 15 Left San Bernardino for Utah.” At least two-thirds of the 3,000 Saints in the San Bernardino colony abandoned, or sold for pennies on the dollar, the property they had acquired through years of sacrifice.
This land was improved through the planting of fruits and grapes, and the dried fruit was readily sold to the passing traders and miners. The Wilsons also raised alfalfa and grain, another profitable crop in pioneer times. Joseph Wilson increased his land holdings from year to year and was one of the very successful men of the valley.
He hauled lumber from the mills in the mountains, making possible much of the early growth of San Bernardino as a city.
He was also a freighter, using teams of six or eight mules in hauling groceries and other supplies from Los Angeles to San Bernardino. This was before the first railroad was built, and his oldest daughter Catherine in the 1920s boasted a vivid recollection of the first train that came into the valley over the newly constructed Southern Pacific line. She was at that time in school and the teacher took all the scholars to witness the coming of the first train, consisting of an engine and flat cars. They were permitted to get aboard and rode to Colton and back home.
Joseph Wilson and wife were the parents of seven children. The oldest, Catherine, born October 25, 1857, was married February 12, 1882, to Horace J. Roberts and he died March 6, 1918. Of her four children, Horace Leslie, born November 24. 1884, spent two years after
leaving high school at Nome, Alaska, and farmed later in Beaumont. He married Margaret English and their two children were Horace Leslie Jr. and Dorothy. Carrie Roberts, the Catherin’s second child, was born September 21, 1886, and died June 24, 1899. Joseph Ernest Roberts was born April 22, 1888, and in 1922 was a salesman for the Union Oil Company at Beaumont, having married Edna E. Sewell, with whom he had three children named Doris Josephine. Catherine Augusta and Edna Mae. Rhoda Irene Roberts, born June 5, 1891, became the wife of Royal T. C. Roberts, an electrician at Coalinga, California, and had four children, Marion, Edith, who died November 12, 1919, and Jewell who died at the age of sixteen months, and Royal Thomas.
Benjamin Wilson, the second child of Joseph Wilson was born June 12, 1859, and died October 6, 1867.
Caroline, third of the family, born March 12, 1861, was the wife of M. L. Frink, a prominent orange grower on the Mission Road, and she has five children : Lena, Watkins, Amy Murphy, Milton J. Frink, and Howard L. Frink.
Delbert Wilson, born June 1, 1866, died in infancy.
Zilpha Wilson, born August 13, 1867, married J. J. Curtis, a prominent orange grower at Redlands, and had two daughters, Mrs. Alice Hill and Mrs. Mabel Seavey.
Anna Wilson, born January 29, 1871, married B. G. Simons of Nevada Street, Redlands, and had one daughter.
The youngest of the family Rhoda Wilson, born April 15, 1878, was the wife of Gordon Smith, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and a fruit grower at Redlands.

Grevillea robusta, commonly known as the silk oak, southern silky oak or silky oak, or Australian silver oak, is the largest species in the genus Grevillea of the family Proteaceae. It is not closely related to the true oaks, Quercus. It is a native of eastern coastal Australia, in riverine, subtropical and dry rainforest environments receiving more than 200 inches per year of average rainfall.
It is a fast-growing evergreen tree, between 59–115 feet tall, with dark green delicately dented bipinnatifid leaves reminiscent of a fern frond. It is the largest plant in the Grevillea genus, reaching trunk diameters in excess of 3 feet. The leaves are generally 6–12 inches long with greyish white or rusty undersides.
Its flowers are golden-orange bottlebrush-like blooms, between 3–6 inches long, in the spring, on a 2–3 cm long stem and are used for honey production. Like others of its genus, the flowers have no petals, instead they have a long calyx that splits into 4 lobes. The seeds mature in late winter to early spring, fruiting on dark brown leathery dehiscent follicles, about 2 cm long, with one or two flat, winged seeds.
Before the advent of aluminium, Grevillea robusta timber was widely used for external window joinery, as it is resistant to wood rot. It has been used in the manufacture of furniture, cabinetry, and fences. Owing to declining G. robusta populations, felling has been restricted.
Recently G. robusta has been used for side and back woods on guitars made by Larrivée and others, because of its tonal and aesthetic qualities.
When young it can be grown as a houseplant where it can tolerate light shade, but prefers full sun as it grows best in warm zones. If planted outside, young trees need protection on frosty nights. Once established it is hardier and tolerates temperatures down to 18 °F). It needs occasional water but is otherwise fairly drought-resistant.
Grevillea robusta is often used as stock for grafting difficult-to-grow grevilleas.
The tree has been planted widely throughout the city of Kunming in south-western China. forming shady avenues. Likewise, it is the primary shade tree lining the parkways of Euclid Avenue north of Foothill Blvd. in Upland.
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.
G. robusta is also grown in plantations in South Africa and can also be grown alongside maize in agroforestry systems.
G.. robusta is naturalized in Hawaii, with invasive tendencies.
The flowers and fruit contain toxic hydrogen cyanide. Tridecylresorcinol in G.robusta is responsible for contact dermatitis.