The historic Refugio State Beach Park palm trees are in trouble. This year 10 trees have been permanently damaged according to California State Parks representative Dena Bellman, who says an additional six trees have been tagged as unstable.
"So there is a potential that we would have to remove any at risk of failure," said Bellman
Bellman continues that Refugio State Beach has been plagued with erosion issues for the past several years and says climate change is to blame.
"The palm trees have been our erosion protection there for decades, when you lose that then there is the potential to really lose that whole park," said Bellman.
Besides the downed palms, the park also suffered damage and flooding from the recent storms, something Bellman says are all being assessed.
"We’re actively assessing and analyzing the area, seeing what solutions exist and what challenges we have," said Bellman.
Bellman says solutions will be presented to the public for comment before implementation. But, local historian Tom Modugno says these problems are nothing new and action should be taken sooner rather than later.
"They can blame it on climate change, sea level rise, erosion, those are all valued reasons but that doesn’t mean you can’t do something… it's been done before... Save the Refugio palms," said Modugno.
Modugno refers to when the trees were moved back several feet after a 1983 El Ninjo storm caused damage to the beach and he believes if nothing is done soon more and more trees will be lost.
