Anonymous
February 25, 2019, 8:28 am
7.7k Views
8 Comments
By an edhat reader
There’s a large pile of palm fronds in front of my house and smaller piles in the area. Does anyone know who picks them or whom I should call in the city of Santa Barbara to have them picked up? (There are too many to cut up and put in the trash — and I know they should not go in the green waste.) Thanks!
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I wouldn’t purposely put palm fronds in the street where they can be run over, they are a hazard. I ran over one on a Goleta street in my truck a few years ago and the very large, stiff and sharp base of the frond rotated up, got caught underneath, and punctured my radiator, causing a slow leak and ultimately I had to replace the radiator. An expensive lesson. Also a reason why cities should respond and remove palm fronds from city streets. BTW palm trees are not endemic to Santa Barbara and are well known for rats (also non-endemic) nesting in them, that’s why you see the wide metal bands around the trunks of many city owned trees.
If they’re in your yard, you own them. If they’re on city property like a street it’s the city’s responsibility. And if the wind blows them from your yard into the street after dark when nobody is looking…
Get a truck, take them to the dump. It will cost you $26. The city won’t come and take them from you if they are on your property.
I usually call Marborg when I have such questions: 805-963-1852. They are always courteous and informative.
Using a handsaw is good exercise and extremely satisfying. OP, if you’re concerned with fronds which fall from a City street tree, you can call City streets dept and ask for street tree division. Tree guys will pick up street tree fronds upon request. If fronds are from your own tree, on your property, and you are unable to saw frinds to smaller size, you need to hire a gardener or enlist the help of a friend or relative to do so. Put the sawed up fronds in your trash or stick them in a large box and take advantage of Marborg’s twice yearly FREE curbside pickup. At our house we compost fronds. They break down quite nicely over time.
If it makes you feel more kindly disposed to palm trees, there are many birds in Santa Barbara that make use of our local palms for food, food storage, nesting, roosting: Several species of Hawks, Hooded Orioles, Acorn woodpeckers, Hummingbirds, Barn and Great-horned owls, Yellow-rumped warblers, and so on. I once spotted a Merlin as it perched in a palm tree on Cabrillo Blvd.
Just don’t put them in the green waste bin as they’re on Marborg’s ‘not accepted’ list.
https://www.marborg.com/residential-green-waste-santa-barbara
In the 1950s the horseshow grounds were at Pershing Park. For the National Horseshow in July the city covered the frame over the bleachers with fresh palm fronds. They obviously trimmed many trees each summer.