Common Area Parkway Trees – Leaves, needles, fruit and berries

Posted on: January 4th, 2023

The community has over 1700 trees that are spread across 29 acres of common area representing 33 different species. Nearly all of these trees by their very nature shed leaves, needles and berries as part of their growth process. In doing so they can cause unwanted problems.

These problems have been ones that the community has been wrestling with for many years.
It is worth noting that Encinitas Ranch inherited these trees from the developers. The developers chose the species of trees and their locations and the plan was approved by the City of Encinitas.
The Landscaping Committee working with BrightView (our landscape maintenance contractor) has tried a wide variety of approaches to cleaning up leaves and needles as well as reducing or eliminating the fruit produced by some of these trees with no success. They have tried treating trees with various chemicals to stop the trees from producing fruit and found that this approach has not worked. Furthermore, treatments are very expensive even for one tree and even if it worked the treatment would need to be done on a recurring basis.
The Landscaping Committee has also tried more aggressive tree trimming and all that does is accelerate regrowth and more fruit production. Arborists we work with will tell you that there is no good answer to the problem of these trees dropping fruit or berries. Removal and replacement of one species of tree would consume the entire annual landscaping budget or more.
We have asked BrightView to sweep the sidewalks, streets and driveways of any droppings from trees and within an hour, or less, of doing so, more berries/leaves or fruit are on the ground. It would prohibitively expensive to sweep these areas on a regular basis such that it would provide a satisfactory outcome.
The community cannot solve every problem for homeowners that relate to common areas and infrastructure. We live where there are shared responsibilities. If leaves, needles, fruit or berries are creating an unwanted situation for an owner then we encourage them to take the lead on clean-up and the community will focus their attention on matters that benefit the greater good. The community will continue to look for alternative solutions.