Transit district halts tree cutting in Leucadia after public outcry - Leucadia, CA

ENCINITAS: Transit district halts tree cutting in Leucadia

The North County Transit District stopped a tree crew that was felling eucalyptus trees Tuesday on the eastern edge of Highway 101 in Leucadia after community members said they had not been notified of the work as promised.

Alex Wiggins, a spokesman for the district, said in an e-mail Tuesday that "NCTD regrets the lack of notification to local residents. We have instructed our contractor to temporarily halt the work, and we will take appropriate corrective action."

Wiggins said that the district would pause its cutting work for the next few weeks and share its plans with the city of Encinitas and with the Leucadia Highway 101 Mainstreet Association.
Patricia Bell, a member of the association's board of directors, said Tuesday that she was surprised to see the work underway because she had heard nothing about it. She said Leucadians love the canopy of branches that the trees provide over the highway and have been dismayed to see it thin with recent tree-cutting operations by the district and the city in recent years.