LEADERS WE LOVE : Meet Ken Pfalzgraf Beverly Hills City Arborist & Beautifying Our City
Written by Jessica Varone
What motivated you to pursue a career as an arborist? My path to becoming Urban Forester 90210 was unorthodox to say the least. My younger years found me working on railroad tie gangs and in the forests of Montana. I expanded my experience with rigging by moving oil drilling rigs with rig-up trucks and cranes in the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma and Texas. When the oil boom shut down in the mid-80s, the crane work took me to Las Vegas, where I would hoist the occasional palm tree being moved around, which was far more interesting to me than swinging a concrete bucket or I beams. My interest in palms took me to the date groves of the Coachella Valley and into the laboratory of a college professor who took me under her wing to crash course me in tree physiology. I noticed direct comparables between the structure of a crane boom and the trunk of a palm tree and wrote some articles, which took me into mapping tree populations and analyzing them for structural risk. My consulting business caught the attention of the city of Beverly Hills, when they contacted me about a palm problem they were having, leading to my 22-year role in managing an urban forest in the finest city in the world.
And what do you enjoy most in your role? There is nothing like being in an airplane flying over Southern California, looking down, and knowing that 5 square mile blot of trees down there are “my trees”. There is a marked difference, you know. The street trees were put in before the houses, making them the City’s original identity element. I am grateful for the community’s support of the trees program; being trusted with a hundred-plus-year legacy and being paid to do it is a humbling privilege. I receive the best support from the City Council and the Commissions. I always say, “Anyone who does what I do, wants my job”.
What initiatives is your department currently focusing on? A multi-year study of the urban forestry operation and resources in Beverly Hills was recently completed and published as the Urban Forest Management Plan. This plan evaluated our team's performance and the city's current canopy coverage. The goal is to maintain and increase the canopy coverage using drought-tolerant trees. Maintaining a healthy tree canopy while adapting to rising temperatures and declining water supply is a challenge.
We will be expanding our canopy coverage by inter-planting appropriately sized shade trees between palms and identifying other opportunities to increase shade coverage in our public spaces. As always, our residents will participate in the choice of the tree type that will grace their street.
We deeply respect what has made us successful in the past. As always, the tree team focuses on organizational efficiency, contract management, and maintaining a good relationship with the public. I tell my team that you will build trust and credibility on the street, one door knocks at a time.
What might residents in Beverly Hills be surprised to learn about your work with trees, plants, and nature? The contract that defines the practices used in caring for the City’s trees is available on the City’s website. In managing its trees, The City considers how trees lend to the City’s environmental quality and its reputation as a Tree City USA, the title “Garden City,” and how it provides our visitors with a world-class experience. Tree maintenance is scheduled to limit inconvenience to our businesses and regional traffic flow, with some work scheduled for Sundays and during nighttime hours. The City does not spray or inject chemicals into its trees but instead releases beneficial insects as a natural remedy to pest outbreaks. Each member of the City tree team holds International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist and Tree Risk Assessment Certification credentials.
As a former Davey Tree Expert Company, Ken has always held a great deal of respect for founder John Davey’s motto, “do it right, or not at all.” These two first-edition books, one signed by John Davey himself, are among his most prized tree books.
What are a few of your preferred trees or flora in Beverly Hills? Palms hold a special place in my heart, as they brought me to where I am today. The palms of Beverly Hills have put me on the front page of the LA Times, and I can’t turn on the television without seeing them in commercials. My youngest daughter, “Tami,” was named Tamara, Hebrew for date palm. Palms rank high on my list.
My “regular tree” favorites include the Camphor trees of North Maple Drive and the Liquidambar trees on Carmelita in fall color; especially with the backdrop of Canary Island Date Palms when viewed from the northeast corner of North Beverly and Carmelita in early November. The Morton Bay Fig at the southeast corner of North Beverly and Park Way is world-renowned.
Ken, how many varieties of trees and plant species do we have in Beverly Hills? Beverly Hills has more than a thousand plant species growing on its streets, in its parks and gardens and on its residential properties, lending to its reputation as The Garden City. In terms of the City’s trees, we strive to increase the tree diversity to limit species dependence, which lessens the likelihood that losses will be catastrophic if there is a disease or insect problem. Even though the model of street tree plantings from the beginning was to plant one type of tree on a street, work records going back to 1944 show that the City has worked to improve the diversity of its street trees while maintaining the tree-related identities of its streets.
How special! Finally, can you share a few of the most unique and rare tree species in the city? Don’t tell anyone, but there is a palm tree, planted by parties unknown, into the Palm Block of Beverly Gardens Park on my daughter Kendra’s second birthday. It is Phoenix theophrasti, the Cretan Date Palm, which grows in only three locations worldwide. Others you will want to see are the Montezuma Cypress at the northeast corner of North Rodeo and North Santa Monica, the Blue Atlas Cedars that flank the world-famous Beverly Hills sign, and the magnificent Valley Oak on the terrace of Greystone Mansion. The National Co-Champion Canary Island Date Palm is just a few feet north of the pedestrian pathway on the Hillcrest side of Beverly Gardens Park.
Ken, outside of your work with trees in the City, do you have other interests you would like to share with us? In my spare time :0) I build guitars out of junk and rescue old mail order catalog econo-guitars. I started up on this hobby to raise awareness for non-verbal children, so my daughter Tami, who is non-verbal herself, signs each one. The guitars are highly personalized to the individuals they go to and typically have relics that tie back to the early blues players of the North Mississippi area. Much to my surprise, the guitars have become popular in the blues world have made their way all across the United States and into Europe. Some have been used to record record albums; is that even a term anymore?