No Removal or Damage to Native Oak Trees for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics Games in LA
The Issue
Brief Introduction
The Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia and LA28 (the Organizing Committee for the Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles) want to create a cross-country equestrian course for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics Games. The plan that has been submitted involves removing 34 protected mature native oak trees and damage to the root zones of at least 45 others. Removing and damaging protected mature native oak trees for one event that will occur on a single day, July 17, 2028, even if it’s for the 2028 Games, is completely unnecessary. The City of Arcadia has the power to deny the permit to remove these trees, and we ask that the city acts decisively.
Other infrastructure already exists. Previous races have been held at Galway Downs in Temecula, and the equestrian events for the 2028 Games were slated to take place there until LA28 changed course for unknown reasons in the final stages of planning. The Santa Anita Racetrack also has large expanses of hardscaping that could be developed into a cross-country course, rather than damaging the only section that is home to a stand of mature native oaks.
It is also important to recognize that damage to established tree root zones often causes their future demise. The results of this damage can take years to show. Given that there are so many options for an alternative, this seems like an unnecessary risk.
Why This Matters
Deciding to sacrifice protected mature native oaks would follow the darker legacy of the Olympics. For example, coral reefs in Tahiti were damaged for the 2024 Paris Olympics surfing event. Deciding to fully align with LA28’s own Impact and Sustainability Plan by building a cross-country equestrian course that uses existing infrastructure while sparing an important carbon reservoir and habitat would set a historical and shining example for other large-scale events in the future.
This regional decision for the 2028 Games has enormous global impacts. At this time in human history we are experiencing the predicted effects of the climate crisis. Climate change severely affects infectious and noninfectious diseases. Almost 90% of the diseases attributable to climate change affect children under 5 years old. The warming of the planet has contributed to a giant glacier collapsing and causing flooding in Nepal where there have been over 1,450 deaths and over 5,745 people missing.
The changing climate is increasing fires globally and locally. The Palisades and Eaton Fires in LA have already caused a loss of local mature native canopy. We have lost 14,000 of 30,000 trees in the Eaton Fire, with an additional 2,000 to 3,000 lost during the clean up. Even more recently, approximately 20% of the surviving street trees from the Palisades and Eaton Fires have disappeared. With the increase in fires and worsening air quality, we cannot afford to lose any more trees which are critical to combating air pollution. Furthermore, each mature oak tree sequesters over one ton of carbon dioxide, with oak trees sequestering over one ton of carbon dioxide starting at age 40 and over five tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Removing 34 oak trees for the 2028 Games will release over 34-170 tons of carbon dioxide.
Oak trees are also a keystone species and support more life forms than any other tree genus in North America. Since oak trees support more biodiversity than all the other trees, the removal of them will be devastating to countless species. With this in mind, it is important to mention that the cross-country equestrian course plan for the 2028 Games includes removing an endangered Engelmann oak tree and further contributing to a significant loss in biodiversity amidst a staggering global loss of biodiversity that is crucial to the health of people and the planet. The Engelmann oak trees are among at least 1.2 million out of 8 million plant and animal species facing the threat of extinction and a sixth mass extinction event is underway which is the first extinction event to be principally caused by human activity.
Removing any mature native oaks for the 2028 Games conflicts with LA28’s environmental commitments to minimize environmental impacts and protect and restore nature. A voluntary and unnecessary loss of a valuable ecological asset for the sake of a one day event is bad for humans and for the ecological web that supports us. It is also representative of the kind of human action that has brought us to this place in the climate crisis, where humans treat the ecological web that supports all life on this planet as inconsequential and expendable. We cannot afford the loss of a single protected mature native oak tree at this point in the climate crisis.
The Olympics and Paralympics are in town for a few weeks and the cross-country equestrian event will only occur on a single day. These trees have been part of Arcadia for generations, and will contribute to our shared health for years to come. If they are removed, that loss is permanent.
Our Request
We respectfully request that the redesign include NO removal or damage to native trees, and that LA28, the Santa Anita Racetrack, and the City of Arcadia show true leadership during this time of the climate crisis to make decisions that will have lasting benefits to our local and global community.
References:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3059989/
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/fact-sheet-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis
https://english.nepalnews.com/s/feature/buried-under-debris-erased-from-the-record/
https://luskin.ucla.edu/news/why-thousands-of-trees-are-still-disappearing-after-the-palisades-fire/
https://nationalagro.org/images/articles/2022-Chapter-Carbonsequestration-of-oak-tree-Sinduja.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/realestate/oak-trees-why-you-should-plant.html
https://www.nps.gov/articles/species-spotlight-oaks.htm
https://www.unep.org/facts-about-nature-crisis
102
The Issue
Brief Introduction
The Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia and LA28 (the Organizing Committee for the Olympics and Paralympics in Los Angeles) want to create a cross-country equestrian course for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics Games. The plan that has been submitted involves removing 34 protected mature native oak trees and damage to the root zones of at least 45 others. Removing and damaging protected mature native oak trees for one event that will occur on a single day, July 17, 2028, even if it’s for the 2028 Games, is completely unnecessary. The City of Arcadia has the power to deny the permit to remove these trees, and we ask that the city acts decisively.
Other infrastructure already exists. Previous races have been held at Galway Downs in Temecula, and the equestrian events for the 2028 Games were slated to take place there until LA28 changed course for unknown reasons in the final stages of planning. The Santa Anita Racetrack also has large expanses of hardscaping that could be developed into a cross-country course, rather than damaging the only section that is home to a stand of mature native oaks.
It is also important to recognize that damage to established tree root zones often causes their future demise. The results of this damage can take years to show. Given that there are so many options for an alternative, this seems like an unnecessary risk.
Why This Matters
Deciding to sacrifice protected mature native oaks would follow the darker legacy of the Olympics. For example, coral reefs in Tahiti were damaged for the 2024 Paris Olympics surfing event. Deciding to fully align with LA28’s own Impact and Sustainability Plan by building a cross-country equestrian course that uses existing infrastructure while sparing an important carbon reservoir and habitat would set a historical and shining example for other large-scale events in the future.
This regional decision for the 2028 Games has enormous global impacts. At this time in human history we are experiencing the predicted effects of the climate crisis. Climate change severely affects infectious and noninfectious diseases. Almost 90% of the diseases attributable to climate change affect children under 5 years old. The warming of the planet has contributed to a giant glacier collapsing and causing flooding in Nepal where there have been over 1,450 deaths and over 5,745 people missing.
The changing climate is increasing fires globally and locally. The Palisades and Eaton Fires in LA have already caused a loss of local mature native canopy. We have lost 14,000 of 30,000 trees in the Eaton Fire, with an additional 2,000 to 3,000 lost during the clean up. Even more recently, approximately 20% of the surviving street trees from the Palisades and Eaton Fires have disappeared. With the increase in fires and worsening air quality, we cannot afford to lose any more trees which are critical to combating air pollution. Furthermore, each mature oak tree sequesters over one ton of carbon dioxide, with oak trees sequestering over one ton of carbon dioxide starting at age 40 and over five tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Removing 34 oak trees for the 2028 Games will release over 34-170 tons of carbon dioxide.
Oak trees are also a keystone species and support more life forms than any other tree genus in North America. Since oak trees support more biodiversity than all the other trees, the removal of them will be devastating to countless species. With this in mind, it is important to mention that the cross-country equestrian course plan for the 2028 Games includes removing an endangered Engelmann oak tree and further contributing to a significant loss in biodiversity amidst a staggering global loss of biodiversity that is crucial to the health of people and the planet. The Engelmann oak trees are among at least 1.2 million out of 8 million plant and animal species facing the threat of extinction and a sixth mass extinction event is underway which is the first extinction event to be principally caused by human activity.
Removing any mature native oaks for the 2028 Games conflicts with LA28’s environmental commitments to minimize environmental impacts and protect and restore nature. A voluntary and unnecessary loss of a valuable ecological asset for the sake of a one day event is bad for humans and for the ecological web that supports us. It is also representative of the kind of human action that has brought us to this place in the climate crisis, where humans treat the ecological web that supports all life on this planet as inconsequential and expendable. We cannot afford the loss of a single protected mature native oak tree at this point in the climate crisis.
The Olympics and Paralympics are in town for a few weeks and the cross-country equestrian event will only occur on a single day. These trees have been part of Arcadia for generations, and will contribute to our shared health for years to come. If they are removed, that loss is permanent.
Our Request
We respectfully request that the redesign include NO removal or damage to native trees, and that LA28, the Santa Anita Racetrack, and the City of Arcadia show true leadership during this time of the climate crisis to make decisions that will have lasting benefits to our local and global community.
References:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3059989/
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/fact-sheet-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis
https://english.nepalnews.com/s/feature/buried-under-debris-erased-from-the-record/
https://luskin.ucla.edu/news/why-thousands-of-trees-are-still-disappearing-after-the-palisades-fire/
https://nationalagro.org/images/articles/2022-Chapter-Carbonsequestration-of-oak-tree-Sinduja.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/realestate/oak-trees-why-you-should-plant.html
https://www.nps.gov/articles/species-spotlight-oaks.htm
https://www.unep.org/facts-about-nature-crisis
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Petition created on October 3, 2026