Church vs. state tree

It's church vs. state tree in California

Roots of redwoods invade foundation, threaten historic chapel's survival

By Maria L. La Ganga
Tribune Newspapers
Published December 28, 2006


MONTEREY, Calif. -- A classic struggle is playing out here in the first capital of California, and it's anyone's guess who the victor will be: God or nature.

On one side stands San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey, believed to be the oldest continuously functioning church in California, completed in 1794. On the other, a small stand of stately redwood trees, whose roots have made their way through the chapel's foundation and threaten its survival
For this clash of California icons, there is no easy solution. Church officials have asked the city of Monterey for a permit to cut down all of the trees to preserve this landmark of California's Spanish colonial era. The city recommends that at least two of the four redwoods remain, no matter what.

"You have the classic conflict," said Robert Reid, urban forester for Monterey, a historic building versus "rightfully magnificent native redwood trees that also have some serious standing in the community."

"It is kind of a dilemma," he said.


`Reach out and protect them'

As anyone who has ever seen a redwood knows, the official state tree of California inspires awe and sometimes exceptional fervor.

"There's something about these trees that makes people want to reach out and protect them," said Ruskin Hartley, director of conservation for the Save-the-Redwoods League. But he also warns that "you have to alter your perspective and time scale when you go about planting these trees that will live for 2,000 years."

That's advice that should have been given in the 1950s, when the four redwoods were planted--probably by well-meaning parishioners--along the east side of San Carlos Borromeo, a church with its own impressive superlatives.

The petite stone structure is variously heralded as California's first cathedral, the smallest cathedral in the continental United States and the first structure in California designed by a known architect.

It is home to one of the first non-indigenous sculptures created in the Golden State, a stone carving of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron of the Americas.

The church was completed in December 1794 and dedicated two months later. Daily mass has been celebrated in the church since, said Rev. Peter Crivello, the current pastor.

San Carlos "goes off the Richter scale as a work of architectural significance," said Jack Williams, executive director of the Center for Spanish Colonial Research.

Renovations needed

The entire building must be seismically strengthened. Concrete patching--the well-intentioned but disastrous renovations of an earlier time--must be removed and replaced. The statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe must be taken down from its place of honor above the church doors for treatment in a conservation lab.

The parish plans to launch a $5.5 million fundraising effort in early 2007 to pay for extensive renovations and reverse the damage wrought by the redwoods.

Moisture is anathema to the structure's stones, and the tall trees' shade prevents the small cruciform church from drying out. Then there are the insidious roots.

To archeologist Ruben Mendoza, director of the Institute of Archaeology at California State University-Monterey Bay, the choice is clear.

"You save the building or you save the trees," he said. "You can't save both."

Crivello, having grown up in the San Carlos parish and worshiped alongside the redwoods throughout his childhood, finds it "regretful" that they must go.

"We wish we could have both," he said, but "we're caretakers of this historical gem. We have to be good stewards of this building."

Reid, the forester, hopes for a compromise and has recommended that only the two redwoods closest to the building be cut down. He has suggested pruning the roots of the remaining trees, digging a trench between them and the church and filling it in with material that new roots could not penetrate.

That would destroy the layers of history buried beneath the site, such as an early presidio wall, Mendoza said. And here at San Carlos Borromeo, history is everything.

"I love redwood trees, and I would hate to see one come down," said historian Williams. "But we cannot plant another presidio."

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The church's history

San Carlos Borromeo de Monterey is all that remains of a Spanish mission and presidio founded at the site in 1770. The mission was soon moved to Carmel, but the presidio and its chapel--the first of four church buildings--remained. After the third church was damaged by fire in 1789, master mason and architect Manuel Ruiz was brought from Mexico to design and erect the existing structure.

An archeological excavation around the church's foundation found items from California's trade history: ceramics from Mexico, Asian stoneware and porcelain, Spanish majolica, a half real coin dated 1779 and ash from the 1789 fire.

-- Los Angeles Times