Gary Jensen spent the day with a chain saw to clear a path for the residents until the tree can be professionally removed. The photo shows the bridge that withstood the impact.
At 2 a.m. Thursday, April 14, a loud crack and bump awakened Bonnell neighbors. By morning light they saw that half of a 300-year-old California Coast Live Oak had fallen into the back yard of the Jensen property on Old Topanga Canyon Road, straddling the creek between it and a neighbor’s back yard. Damage was mostly to fencing, a mimosa tree that took the brunt of the fall, and items in the yard.
Two oak trees and a Western Sycamore close to Old Canyon Road, were registered by previous owners Stan and Mary Cepin and certified in July 1965 by the Topanga-Las Virgenes Soil Conservation District. The family named one tree Big Mike when their son, the youngest of six girls, was born.
