Dear Editor:

In Apollo Park is a Magnolia tree planted 67 years ago by the Old River School Mothers Club to commemorate the soldiers who gave their lives in the Korean War.

I’m not an arborist, but the tree (Magnolia grandiflora) is beginning to struggle for lack of adequate water. There are quite a few dead branches at the top of the canopy.

When they refurbished Apollo Park a few years ago, they added several rows of picnic tables in the vicinity of the tree and paved the entire area with crushed granite. The granite is practical, and looks nice in the picnic area, but they covered the entire area around the tree with seemingly no allowances for properly watering it.

The Magnolia tree is native to the wetter temperate forests of the southeastern United States. They withstand heat well but require regular watering in order to thrive in our dry climate.

Jack Russell
Downey