" Oh wow! Was it one of those beautiful eucalyptus trees that are in that area? "

" MarkMiWords:
We have a photographer out there right now ... it appears it was one of the trees from that grove, will know more when the photographer checks in. "

" Why were the railroad tracks done first? I would think that more people would benefit having the highway cleared. "

" What happend to NIXLE? "

" Those trees are HUGE ! "

" I got it on Nixle. 12:16pm.
Was anyone there to hear/see it fall? If so, what a sight to behold!

If no, maybe it never even made so much as a peep when it fell. "

" PercussionQueen7-
Probably because you can't reroute the train but you can reroute the traffic... "

" These trees are NOT native to California or North America. They are fire hazards and falling hazards, adapted to the normal, violent bushfire cycle in their native Australia. They should all be cut down and replaced by NATIVE trees, along Highway 29, Stanly Lane, and in any other places where they pose a hazard. "

" srsly -

Good point, hadn't thought of that. :) "

" The roots of eucalyptus trees are shallow and those trees shouldn't be near any road - especially a busy highway full of drunk drivers!! BUT, some of those trees near Yountville are protected by law! Ridiculous! I love trees, but this is BOUND to happen again - and next time there might be much more damage or injuries. "

" The are all due to fall down. They were planted in the 1860's or thereabouts by John Trubody, one of the early settlers of Napa. They are all about 150 years old which is about their life span, and will be falling soon.

It's funny, last week my wife was commenting that those trees are about to all fall down, based on the above. Prophetic. Hot weather tends to make them do that for some reason.

They are a huge hazard right now. It is lucky no one was under that thing. "

" was it the white eucalyptus tree? It's the oldest in Ca.. "

" msetty: Any large tree can pose a hazard. Large oak trees fall and drop their limbs all the time. Many of the giant eucalyptus are historic and add much to the landscape. Unfortunately they have already cut down many on Stanly Lane, I hope they leave the rest standing. It's extremely sad when planners listen to people like msetty, or when grapegrowers decide to cut down a huge number of historic trees which were an intrinsic part of the south Napa landscape along Stanly Lane for the sake of puttin in a few extra grapevines. "

" Next assignment? Bring some Koala bears to keep these trees trimmed and in check so they don't grow too tall or too thick :) "

" THe tree looks healthy. I wonder how it fell over. "

" They had many of these giant eucalyptus trees lining El Camino Road in Burlingame and they would come down at a pace of one a winter or more. They are a deadly hazard. Many there have been replaced b/c they were such a danger and I recall that the City would inspect them periodically to make sure they were not rotting & remove as needed. These trees should be checked by arborists and removed NOW if they show any sign of decay. They were planted at the same time so they will probably fall at a close rate as well... let's take today as a lesson to inspect the neighboring trees asap and prevent any potential loss of life! "

" The tree that fell was the one furthest south in that line of trees. It was not the large white eucalyptus tree, historically known as the "Trubody Tree", according to a picture in a book on Yountville history.

Through the 80's and 90's I lived in a house right next to the highway, just a stone's throw from the Trubody Tree. Early one morning I was awakened by a loud shattering crack followed by a tremendous thud that shook the entire house. The next thing I heard were a couple cars screeching to a halt. The Trubody Tree had shed one of its huge lower branches, blocking the Northbound lanes of 29 and all of Washington Street.

That firewood lasted for years... "

" I think calling those trees a mere fire hazard is an understatement.

A couple of weeks, I rode through that fire just north of the Carquinez Bridge. There was fire on both sides of the the road, and the road is REALLY WIDE ( it is probably a couple hundred yards wide just north of the toll plaza ) there. Somehow, the fire managed to get across the road, because globs of burning embers were being blown out of the trees down onto the road and across it. Oh, and onto cars on the road, and on to me. Me being highly responsive to danger, eventually realized I should flip my visor down before I got some of those buning globs in my mouth. I was so in awe of how the embers were swirling around, I was open-mouthed in amazement.

I was smelling burning eucalyptus all the way home. I don't think the fire could have crossed the road there if any other trees had been there. "

" To theangrybear:

It is is amazing what some people want to preserve. To add to what reason-ator and others here have pointed out, these weed tree imports from OZ (Australia) also had a huge role in the Oakland Hills fire that destroyed 3,500 homes. Every time I travel to Oakland and see the hills, I always wonder when the next time the area will go up again. "

" Was this one of the trees that is in the middle section of 29? Is the one with the big knob on it the Trubody tree? "

" The wife and I drove by there at 9:30 am yesterday and we saw a large limb had fallen. I commented that it was luck it fell in the median area.

Who knew it was a precurser of larger things to come... "

" Just a note to those who wondered why the tracks were cleared before the highway. The part of the tree on the highway was seven feet across, and probably weighed a couple hundred tons. The part on the tracks was branches. The way crews clear a tree like this is to get rid of the branches first, then carve up the trunk. You work from the top down. I'm pretty sure they were not looking out for the train more than the car traffic. That was a huge job. "

" msetty, we don't have any huge eucalyptus forests around here like in the Oakland hills and near San Francisco, just a few strands planted to act as windbreaks. I think they are a great part of the landscape. But I guess we might as well just cut down all large trees of any kind that happen to be anywhere close to civilization, that way we can be completely risk-free. Massive redwoods and oaks pose a danger of falling/ droping limbs same as eucalyptus. "

" A couple of weeks or so ago we were driving on the hwy and noticed, just south of this fallen tree's location, a large portion of another euc had fallen and was blocking the Wine Train tracks.
Is there a disease going around, or maybe a lack of water? Personally I don't like to see this kind of tree near any kind of hwy, or rr track for that matter. "

" There is a concerted effort to eliminate all eucalyptus trees in Napa and Sonoma. It may pick up some momentum with this incident. I attended a Napa Vintners Assoc. event last year and the speaker said to imagine those trees as giant towers of water. These trees are fire hazards, fall hazards, water hording, illegal immigrants, any other reason to get rid of them? "

" theangrybear:

I stand by my statements about the weed trees from OZ. I happen to live in an area with lots of large native oak trees, and am quite familar with them as fire and falling hazards. Compared to eucalyptus, they are much less hazardous, partly because they live longer and give signs of trouble long before they fall. Oak leaves on the ground are also much less of a fire hazard compared to oil-impregnated eucalyptus bark and dead leaves that build up below the trees year after year, choking out most other vegetation, native or otherwise.

Many of the "strands of eucalyptus" you think are so "beautiful" happen to be quite old and increasingly a severe falling hazard. There are also many eucalyptus groves and clumbs in parts of the Napa hills that are HUGE fire hazards, such as the area along lower Atlas Peak Road where the highest density of houses are located. You obviously aren't familiar with the fire a few years ago near the waterfall about a mile below the City of Napa's property at Milliken Dam.

This area went up literally in minutes mainly due to the huge amount of eucalyptus materials that had built up on the ground over many years, let alone the very high flammability of the trees themselves. Thankfully they are now cutting down the rest of them, two years later!

Of course I don't want to mow down all the trees. Give me a break! That accusation was just excessive rhetoric. I care as much as anyone about Napa Valley aesthetics, but I will sacrifice a little for a few years (until the native trees can grow) if it greatly improves fire and transportation safety. Those weed trees are no loss at all. "

" Eucs aren't just for windbreaks, they also grow where nothing else will. Look at these shady areas where the huge eucs are removed to allow 'native' trees to grow.

The native trees don't get large enough to provide shade for a squirrel... "

" What about the loss of habitat for animals if the eucalyptus trees were cut down? (I love the word eucalyptus; it was one of the first words I learned to spell). We have a beautiful white owl and his family (we've never seen them close enough, so we don't know if they're barn owls or snowy owls) living in one of the twenty or so eucalyptus trees lining our property. There's also a family of red-tailed hawks and countless other critters living in those trees. I imagine it's the same with most other groves of eucalyptus.

These are enormous trees, and they've been around since long, long before I was born and before my parents owned the property. We've never once had a problem with falling branches or diseased trees. We've had several incidences with a large apple tree that fell into my grandma's house, and two of our enormous pine trees, which died inexplicably, but never with the eucalyptus.

They're beautiful and they smell great! "

" Exactly, pharper! When I lived in south Napa there were some very large pines and eucalyptus near and on the property, and we only had trouble with the pine trees. Had to cut several down.
And msetty, all I was saying is that according to your logic, all big trees really should go if they are too close to people. I do agree with you in that some of the massive eucalyptus forests do pose a greater risk and should be reduced, and diseased trees of any species usually require removal but that's about it. And I like your putting words in my mouth; "beautiful"... lol.
But c'mon, there is no way you can convince me that a few historic eucalyptus strands such as on stanly lane really pose such terrifying danger. msetty is a prime example of quite a few folks i've heard who get completely hysterical about eucalyptus trees. So what if they aren't native? Neither are you; they've been here a lot longer than you have. The good thing is that most people do appreciate them "

" But more important,

Did it make any sound when it fell? "