8 Comments

  • Actually there are some species of pine whose cones falling are large and heavy enough to kill you. Don’t know if this particular location has these but they are in the mountains of California.

  • I work in a commercial insurance claims department handling litigated claims. I had an insured that rented out cabins along the coast that got sued by a renter when his cornea was scratched. He was playing in the backyard when a high gust of wind came along and caused a branch to slap him in his face. To hear his attorney tell it any branch that was at lower than 8′ is an inherent hazard.

  • Maybe the tree is a Coulter pine, written up in Wikipedia. Freshly fallen cones weigh 2-5 kg, and workers under Coulter pines are recommended to wear hard hats.

  • At Chicago’s Jardine Water Treatment Plant, they have redwing blackbirds nesting in the bushes near the plant entrance. They sometimes buzz your head. The City put up a sign, “CAUTION – Angry Birds.”

  • As there is no punctuation, the sign can be interpreted to recommend that you carry some pine cones with you and drop them as you go. “Dropping pine cones, proceed at your own risk.”
    Or that trees are falling and traffic cones (or maybe ice cream cones) should be careful. “Dropping pine. Cones proceed at your own risk.”

  • The crematory across the 405 freeway from the VA hospital in Westwood CA (by UCLA) has several of these signs due to the Coulter pines. The pine-cones are larger then a basketball and weigh around 15 lb. and have injured or killed several people over the years.

  • Same attorney that advised Sir Isaac Newton in re: apples, falling…..