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Let's talk landscape this month as everything in our community is green and beautiful. Did you know Four Seasons Beaumont has more than 4,000 trees? This total does not include trees in front or back yards (with the exception of the Front Yard Cost Centers). That is a lot of trees! Park West completed an inventory and has assigned a number to each tree for better tracking and verification of what has been trimmed or taken out. I have been asked why we spend so much to trim the trees every year? The short answer is, they grow! Really fast! They need to be trimmed to keep them not only looking healthy and beautiful, but also for safety. Many of our homes in the community have common area trees hanging over their property. We need to be good neighbors and take care of our trees. With Cal Fire providing their map showing the severity areas, it is critical to keep the trees trimmed and maintained. The Landscape Committee just completed a three-year plan to remove invasive trees that were causing problems either lifting sidewalks and/or walls or destroying residents' property. More than 100 problematic trees were removed. The Landscape Committee performs regular tree walks with our arborist provided in our Park West contract, and they work very closely to ensure any issues are corrected quickly. During these walks, canopies, trunks, branches, roots, and symptoms of disease are examined in addition to the placement of the tree. There are seasonal tree trimmings: fall/winter and spring/ summer. Different species require different schedules for trimming. Some trees are trimmed yearly while others are every other year or even every three years. Park West provides us with a three-year quote for the tree trimmings which enables us to accurately budget for each year. Once the trees are trimmed and we receive the invoice, our FirstService liaison to the Landscape Committee verifies the work was completed before paying the invoice. Even though we have trees that need to be trimmed, and the correlating expenses are incurred, we are always looking for new ways to save the HOA money. To bring our association into the 21st century, we installed modems on all our sprinkler controllers. This allows the association to control the devices remotely and have better control of our fuel mod (fuel modification), the area that is cleared 100 feet away from our property. In the event of a fire, this area's water is turned on and, for the duration of the fire, is on a continuous rotation around the clock. In addition, we can control our water cost as we can turn off water remotely rather than at each controller as we had to do in the past. The controller modems can also detect an irrigation break and turn the water off immediately; a notification is then sent to Park West and Eric Zarr to repair the break. Currently, we have an Ad hoc Fire Mitigation Committee looking at what we can do to mitigate fire danger in and around our common areas. They are working closely with the Landscape Committee to provide a plan for trees in danger of causing problems down the road. The Board of Directors meets for the General Board Session the second Thursday of each month at 1 pm in the Ballroom. Meet with the Board, however, is a less formal gathering held the third Wednesday of each month at 2 pm in the Ballroom. This forum allows Board members to engage in conversation with residents on almost any subject except issues under litigation or topics discussed in Executive Board Session. Several members of the Board attend each month. If you have any questions, please contact me at (714) 722-1301 or kathycravenbod@yahoo.com. Have a safe month and be kind to one another. FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JUNE 2025 5 Message from the Board By Kathy Craven, Board Vice President

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