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14. The Isla Vista Tree: Gone But Not Forgotten
By Carmen Lodise
On January 28, 1983, the tree that had come to be the
symbol of  Isla
Vista's dreams of self-governance, fell off the cliff into the
ocean, the victim of a particularly severe winter storm.
News of the event spread quickly through the community. The next
morning, a flood of memories rushed through me as I gazed at the
empty spot in the County's Del Playa Park where the tree had so
tenaciously clung for so many years.
What had the Isla Vista Tree meant in this town? The elegant cypress
had come to represent Isla Vista's community-building  efforts
in the early 1970s. A drawing of the tree had been used as a logo
on the letterheads of both the Isla Vista Community Council (now
inactive) and the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District--certainly
the central institutional embodiments of this movement.
A drawing of the tree also is the centerpiece of the Welcome to
Isla Vista sign on Los Carneros Road. In addition, several  thousand
yellow and red buttons proclaiming Isla Vista: the People, Yes
as a border around the tree have been distributed over the years.
The phrase was adopted from Carl Sandburg's famous poem, which
is excerpted here in the chapter entitled "The People, Yes."
And, a 1980 Park District poster calling attention to the growth of community institutions in the decade following the razing of the Bank of America during the 1970 civil disturbances here, pictures the I.V. Tree growing out of the ashes of the Bank.
It is that poster that was adapted for the cover of this History
of Isla Vista.
As I remember it, Eric Hutchens and Al Plyley were the two individuals
who did the most to popularize the tree as a symbol of I.V.'s
community-building movement. But, it was so immediately a hit
that there was a big stink made when some politicians tried to
use it as a logo in their campaigns.
It's ironic that the tree grew in the only County-owned park in
Isla Vista (the other 26-plus acres of parks in I.V. have been
purchased and developed by the community through the I.V. Park
District). The alienation between the community and County  government
was painfully obvious when the community asked the County Parks
Department to replace the tree with a new one and to create a
plaque memorializing the tree near on the spot it once grew. Of
course, the community asked that the plaque include a picture
of the tree and the statement "Isla Vista: The People, Yes."
The director of the County Parks Department adamantly refused
to do this, stating that this slogan was, to him, advocacy of
Isla Vista cityhood.
After an appeal to the County Parks Commission, and much discussion
of the difference between community-building and one particular
cityhood option for Isla Vista--and only after the Isla Vista
delegation threatened to read the entire 140-some pages of Sandburg's
poem--did the Parks Commission agree to recom-mend to the Board
of Supervisors that the plaque be installed with the wording requested
for a total cost of $400.
I.V. resident Jeannie Hodges cast the plaque in her studio on campus and the County Parks Department installed it on May 17, 1984.
Shortly thereafter, a rugby team from Santa Barbara, in a drunken stupor, pushed the rock off the bluff onto the beach twenty-five feet below. It took a giant crane to restore the rock and plaque to the spot it can be seen in today. And, the rock has been more adequately secured to the ground.
So, while the Isla Vista Tree is gone, it is not forgotten.
And, the tree did outlast the Bank of America's re-built bank
in Isla Vista. That must mean something.
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