Palm trees old as the area

The Penryn landscape is quintessential northern California. Golden, rolling hills, dotted with leafy green trees set against a blue mountain backdrop.And rows of towering palm trees.At first glance, these tropical-looking landmarks seem out of place in the foothills. But to residents, the trees define the Penryn area as much as the rolling hills. "People in Penryn identify with the palm trees as part of their heritage," said Arry Murphey-Frank, a former Penryn resident. Murphey-Frank now lives in Newcastle, but her children still go to school in Penryn and she is actively involved with the Penryn Heritage Palm Conservation Foundation. While it's impossible not to notice the palms that line the streets, many don't know the history behind the trees. In the late 1800s, entrepreneur Joel Parker Whitney owned thousands of acres of land in the Penryn area and founded the "Placer Citrus Colony Company," a group of English settlers who sought to grow and market citrus crops. Whitney is believed to have planted about 1,000 California Fan palm trees in the 1890s in order to make the land more attractive to English gentlemen farmers and mark the properties in the colony - hence the name of English Colony Road, where the bulk of the palms still stand. The trees stood as a memory of the failed colony for nearly 100 years without much disturbance until about 2000, when someone wanted to cut down several of the trees, said Murphey-Frank, who was on the Penryn Municipal Advisory Council at the time. She and other residents staged a protest, tied their children to the trees to stop the bulldozers and persuaded Placer County to issue a stop work order. The Penryn Municipal Advisory Council then asked the Placer County Board of Supervisors to give the trees special status. They were successful, and the Penryn palms were given the remarkable distinction of being Historical Landmark Trees."As far as I know they're the only living historic landmark in the state of California," Murphey-Frank said. Since then, 869 trees have been identified as historic palms. Of those, about 784 are healthy. The largest stretch of the trees can be found on English Colony Way, but they also stand on roads including Butler, Sisley, Humphrey, Del Mar and Clark Tunnel. Some of the trees have been damaged by natural causes or general neglect. Experts estimate that the trees are nearing the end of their life cycle, said Robert Weygandt, a Placer County supervisor who represented Penryn at the time that the trees gained landmark status. As the palms die they will be replaced, he said, although it may take another 100 years for them to reach their current size."At least it'll be an acknowledgement of the history," he said. The county can levy fines for damaging the trees, but they still face danger at the hands of vandals or construction. The Penryn Heritage Palm Conservation Foundation is currently working with the county and PG&E to find a compromise rather than allowing the tops of the trees to be cut off to make way for power lines. While many new residents may not realize the significance of the palms, their presence is an important way to connect with Penryn's past, Weygandt said."I think it is critical, especially now with the intense growth, to preserve every important component of our history," he said. "Otherwise we'll turn into Anywhere, U.S.A." To that end, the Palm Conservation Foundation is hoping to develop community awareness of the historic palms and work to maintain them. They would like to have a Penryn Heritage Palm Day, where volunteers could clean around the base of the trees and organizers would teach participants about the history and importance of the palms. Eventually, they'd even like to start a nursery to grow new palm trees for residents to plant. "There seems to be a real interest in them," Murphey-Frank said. At community events where the Palm Conservation Foundation has set up informational booths, that interest has been evident, she said. Penryn residents have eagerly approached the booth to tell organizers about their own palm experiences, pulling out photographs of themselves as children, standing next to the towering trees that stand out in Penryn's landscape and heritage.Kate Carpenter can be reached at kbcarpenter@gmail.com.