For Seniors : Octogenarian Toils to Plant Seeds of Tree Awareness

Her eyes have a childlike quality. They’re curious, seeking. But the eyes don’t jibe with the tremor in her hand. She readily admits that her memory sometimes disappoints her. Her physical presence is slight but when she claps her hands after making a discovery about her beloved eucalyptus trees, it’s clear there’s a force to be reckoned with here.

“Sometimes I think I lead a charmed life; it always gives me what I need,” says Grace Heintz, 89, from her modest apartment in Santa Monica.

Ever since she was a 4-year-old in her native Wisconsin, Heintz has been picking up things from the earth and asking, “What is this?” So it’s no surprise that she can name every kind of tree in Santa Monica, has revised a book on the subject and wrote one of her own, “Trees of Santa Monica,” in 1988. She taught herself to ride a bicycle at age 65 and rode all over the city identifying the variety of eucalyptus trees.

Not bad for a former grade-school teacher who several years ago took a botany course at Santa Monica College and developed a passion for eucalyptus trees.

She has driven a camper throughout the state to identify the trees. Of the 700 varieties of eucalyptus tree, Heintz has identified 500 in California. And established a reputation.

Jim Bauml, senior biologist for the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum, has known Heintz for 13 years and has used her on many occasions to verify trees in the collection.

“I don’t know of anyone else who has a broader or deeper knowledge of the eucalyptus,” he said.

When the Los Angeles Zoo wanted to acquire koalas from Australia, Heintz was called in. Why? Because koalas only eat 17 varieties of eucalyptus leaves and she could identify whether those varieties were available.

She made the identifications and the leaves were sent to Australia to test on the animals. They concurred with Heintz.

A few months ago she received a call that would change her life. A stranger called and told her to get over to Lincoln Park because something terrible had happened.

“I went immediately,” Heintz recalled. “When I got there, there was a wire fence around the park. Some man said I would have to leave. I told him I wanted to see my tree. It was 75 years old. He said, ‘They aren’t there anymore.’ I could see that but I wanted to walk to where it was.”

It was a significant moment for Heintz, to look through the wire fence at the spot where something of grandeur once was. “I knew it was my destiny to fight the city and prevent this from happening again even though it’s completely foreign to my nature to do something like that,” she said.

She talks about a eucalyptus tree as if it were family. Like the eucalyptus deanei she identified on 24th Street and Marguerita Avenue in Santa Monica. She found out that it was going to be chopped down to make room for a house. “The tree filled me with awe. I went and talked to the neighbors about it and it was saved and the house was built anyway,” she said.

Heintz says she has this habit that when she starts something, she can’t stop it. She decided to speak before the Santa Monica Parks and Recreation Board.

“They had people there from the Native Plant Society who are plant bigots. They can’t believe eucalyptus are good enough trees. They say they’re bad--get too big, droop their limbs. They said they shouldn’t be planted because they’re not natives. They had their minds made up and they didn’t listen,” she said.

The fact is that only one type of eucalyptus, the brandis, actually droops its limbs, and only at night. Heintz believes that people like John Lynd, manager of parks and sports for the city of Santa Monica, must go.

Lynd says the city’s official policy is not to remove healthy trees. Although the trees in Lincoln Park were healthy, a section of the park was redesigned and the plan called for the removal of the healthy gray gum eucalyptus--a species that no longer exists in Santa Monica.

“We do plan on replanting but not with eucalyptus trees for now. We do have a plan for the future which includes the gray gum,” he said. “In fact, Grace is growing some for us.”

Lynd said he always turns down requests to remove trees and added that “Santa Monica has one of the nicest urban forests of 28,000 city-owned trees.”

So, as she enters her ninth decade, Grace Heintz is starting a movement. A kind of tree politics is growing and attracting people who share her love of trees. They decided to model themselves after a group in Pacific Palisades called Palisades Beautiful, except instead of only planting trees as they do in the Palisades, the Santa Monica group would preserve what they have and get rid of the people who favor chopping them down.

“We do need to keep watch on what the city is doing. I suspect I’m the inspiration. I want this bad thing of chopping down these trees to turn into something good. The city has to get straightened on what they can and can’t do. As for me, I always want to further my knowledge so keeping these trees is important to my studies,” she said.

The group will be called Santa Monica Beautiful and its goals are to preserve what is already growing, make recommendations to the city after careful analysis of what new trees should be planted and monitor the city’s tree management.

She’s been called the “Johnny Appleseed” of California eucalyptus. Now she’s planting the seeds of tree awareness. After the fight with the city, she wants to establish tree walks where schoolchildren and adults are taught about the beauty in their midst.

Anyone interested in working with Heintz may reach her at (310) 399-0869.