The beach is still there, and so is the traffic. But one of the most popular Los Angeles icons is slowly fading away.

They are as much a part of life here as sunshine and freeways. But thousands of palm trees, icons of Southern California featured in countless films, are going the way of silent movie stars: they're dying off.

What's killing the palm trees? Disease and old age. Most of the palm trees aren't native to Southern California, and replacing them would be too expensive , as each new palm tree would cost $35,000 .

So the city is planting cheaper trees -- a million of them. Willows and sycamores and jacarandas are going up in place of the palm trees, and these leafier trees provide more shade and do a better job of trapping air pollution than the more expensive palm trees.

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