One of the Burlingame trees, eucalyptus named “Tom” has recently become quite infamous (or famous – it depends who you speak to). It was quite old for a eucalyptus (approximately 100 years). It was one of many eucalyptuses planted a century ago in Burlingame, CA. I guess the city planners at that time didn’t realize how big eucalyptus might grow. On the picture below, you can see that not much is left from Tom, but also you can appreciate its size and the damage it did to Easton Dr.
While Tom is gone, there are many eucalyptuses of just about similar size still left in Burlingame. And the City is embarking on a plan to eradicate them one by one (at least most of them) and replace with other trees. But to fully appreciate what non-sense Tom became you have to realize that it took a City Council a year to make a decision to cut it. It decided to cut it once, than reversed the decision under real or not so real public opinion pressure to preserve Tom (after all Burlingame calls itself a City of Trees!). Finally the City council reversed itself again and made a decision to “kill” Tom a few weeks ago. This time (is it because of incoming November elections?) the City moved swiftly and last week Tom disappeared for ever.
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