There is no doubt that every owner in the south mesa has watched the steady decline of the canary palm tree in the center median of Paseo de las Flores near the entry monument. The community has closely monitored all canary palms throughout Encinitas Ranch with our arborist as well as Aguilar Pest Control who is arguably the tree and plant pest and disease experts in Southern California. In spite of the monitoring the community lost three of these trees in the past year.  These were all due to the palm weevil which has decimated Southern California canary palm trees over the past year and a half. Two of these palm trees were lost at the entrance to Quail Ridge and the one on Paseo de las Flores. In addition, the city lost three on Paseo de las Verdes at the entry to the south mesa. (As a reminder the city is responsible to maintain all of the landscaping along Paseo de las Verdes in the parkways and center median island near the intersection with Quail Gardens Drive.)

The palm tree on Paseo de las Flores was initially diagnosed with fusarium which is a deadly fungus that attacks these types of palm trees and kills them slowly over time. That tree was being treated for fusarium but it was on life support. Then, in the past few months it was attacked by the palm weevil.

This palm tree will be removed in January and immediately replaced with a similar species that is not susceptible to the palm weevil and other diseases or pests. Once the schedule is set for removal and replacement the community will be notified as traffic on Paseo de las Flores will be impacted for short periods of time.