Corpsmembers relax after a bountiful day cleaning up the Tule River corridor.

The SCC is composed of disadvantaged youth, ages 18-24. Most of these young people cannot compete in the job market. Some have not finished high school. Others have criminal records. CSET and the SCC provide these young adults with job training and placement, as well as assistance to corps members for earning their high school diplomas. They have provided over 4,000 young adults with job training and educational opportunities over the past 20 years.

Some of the SCC’s original projects included trail maintenance and development in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Their work in some of the nation’s most impressive forests naturally progressed into opportunities to bring the forest to the urban areas CSET served. SCC’s first urban forestry projects were in partnership with the Urban Tree Foundation.

The two organizations still work hand-inhand to plant trees today. The majority of these projects focus on unused riparian strips where native oaks and understory plants are placed along new hiking trails cut by SCC members. These trails provide a green escape in an area that would otherwise remain unused, and offer residents and visitors alike a glimpse into what the benefits of a strong environmental education program can mean for the region’s and its at-risk youth.

While many community members enjoy the beauty of these areas, many don’t realize the additional benefits CSET provides the community through its urban forestry program. The green trails capture storm water, increase wildlife habitat, and improve air quality in a region consistently ranked as one of the worst in the nation for smog and ozone pollution.

CSET continues its efforts to increase visibility on the tangible benefits of its project through a variety of tools and resources. One such resource is the federal grant secured by CEST in 2010 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These funds which are administered by California ReLeaf are supporting a multi-faceted project in which members of the SCC will be working to restore a native Valley Oak riparian forest along a creek that is currently devoid of vegetation while also improving Visalia’s urban forestry streetscape. The project brings the added benefit of significant job creation to a county with a 12% unemployment rate as of October, 2011.

“I had a revelation that, even though the people in these communities only live 45 minutes from some of the best national parks in the country, many of them can’t afford to make the short trip to see the parks. The urban forest brings nature to people where they are,” says Higgins.

He hasn’t only witnessed how urban forestry can change communities, but also how it can change individuals. When asked for examples of what SCC does for Corps members, Nathan is quick to respond with stories of three young men whose lives he’s seen transformed.

The three stories all start the same way – a young man who joined the SCC with little opportunity to better his life. One started as a crew member and has been promoted to crew supervisor, leading other young men and women to better their lives just as he has. Another is now working with the City of Visalia Park and Recreation Department as an intern doing park maintenance. His internship will hopefully turn into a paid position as funding becomes available.

Urban Forestry corpsmembers ‘greening’ our urban spaces.These young Valley Oaks will live for hundreds of years and provide shade and beauty for generations.

The most compelling of the three stories though is that of Jacob Ramos. At 16-years old, he was found guilty of a felony charge. Afterhis conviction and time served, he found it nearly impossible to find a job. At CSET, he earned his high school diploma and proved himself as one of the most dedicated workers in the SCC. This year, CSET opened a for-profit subsidiary that does weatherization work. Because of his extensive training completed with the Corps, Jacob now has a job there.

Each year, CSET plants over 1,000 trees, creates accessible hiking trails, and employs 100-150

young people. More than that, it has gone above and beyond its mission to strengthen youth, families, and communities in Tulare County. CSET and the SCC are a reminder of what can be accomplished for our environment and future generations through partnership and perseverance.

The $750,000 grant to this San Jose-based non-profit will implement the initial phase of Our City Forest’s 100K Trees Project — an initiative to plant 100,000 trees throughout the city. Project work includes galvanizing citywide support, providing urban forestry outreach and education and creating a job training program for about 200 at-risk young people. In addition, the grant will support the planting of 4,000 trees and the pruning of an additional 4,000 trees.

Finally, the grant includes funding to assist the start up of a tree nursery where Our City Forest will soon begin cultivating up to 5,000 trees annually on donated land.

Fast Facts for the Our City Forest ARRA Grant

Jobs created: 21

Jobs Retained: 2

Trees Planted: 1,076

Trees Maintained: 3,323

Job Hours Contributed to 2010 Work Force: 11,440

Lasting legacy: Once completed, this project will have provided critical training in the green jobs sector for Bay Area at-risk youth while also creating a healthier, cleaner, and more livable environment for both San Jose residents and visitors.

In addition to helping low-income neighborhoods with such benefits as cleaner air and shade, the job training component of this program will ultimately impact the high unemployment rate in San José, where it remains at over 12 percent.

– Misty Mersich, Program Manager, Our City Forest.

March 7 – 14 is California Arbor Week.  Urban and community forests play a vital role in our lives.  They filter rainwater and store carbon.  They feed and shelter birds and other wildlife.  They shade and cool our homes and neighborhoods, saving energy.  Maybe best of all, they form a living green canopy, contributing to our health and well-being, raising our quality of life.

This March you have a chance to get involved in your own neighborhood forest.  California Arbor Week is a time to plant trees, volunteer in your community, and learn about the forest where you live.  By planting trees in your own yard, caring for trees in your local parks, or attending a community greening workshop, you can make a difference.

For more information, or to find an event near you, please visit www.arborweek.org

Local children help to plant a tree on Arbor Day.

During its 10 years of operation, the foundation has planted over 2,100 trees in this Tree City USA northwest of Sacramento. Wilkinson is a historian and says Woodland got its name because it grew out of an oak forest. Wilkinson and the foundation want to preserve that heritage.

The all-volunteer group works with the city to plant trees downtown and replace aging trees. Twenty years ago, there were almost no trees in the downtown area. In 1990, the city planted three or four blocks of trees. Since 2000, when the Woodland Tree Foundation was created, they have been adding trees.

Roots in Tree Protection

Although the city and foundation work hand-in-hand today, the foundation actually grew out of a lawsuit against the city over a road widening project that was going to destroy a row of 100-year old olive trees. Wilkinson was on the city tree commission. He and a group of citizens sued the city to stop the removal.

They eventually settled out of court, and the city agreed to move the olive trees. Unfortunately, they were not cared for properly and they died.

“The silver lining is that the incident inspired me and a group of people to form a non-profit tree foundation,” said Wilkinson. “A year later we successfully procured our first grant from the California Department of Forestry.”

Because of budget cuts, the city is now encouraging the foundation to take on even more responsibility.

“In the past, the city did a lot of marking and service alerts for underground and utility lines,” said Wes Schroeder, city arborist. “That is very time consuming, and we’re helping the foundation phase that in.”

When old trees need to be replaced, the city grinds out the stumps and adds new soil. Then it gives the locations to the foundation to replace trees.

“We would probably do a lot fewer plantings without the foundation,” said Schroeder.

Working with Neighboring Communities

Volunteers proudly stand beside the 2,000th tree planted by WTF.

The foundation is also getting a lot of assistance from tree groups from two neighboring cities, Sacramento Tree Foundation and Tree Davis. In October and November, the two organizations got grants and chose to work with the Woodland Tree Foundation to plant trees in Woodland.

“Hopefully they’ll become team leaders in our towns when we do plantings,” said Keren Costanzo, new executive director of Tree Davis. “We’re trying to increase collaboration among the organizations and pool our resources.”

The Woodland Tree Foundation is also working with Tree Davis to plant trees along Highway 113 which joins the two cities.

“We’ve adopted seven miles along the highway,” said Wilkinson. “It was just completed 15 years ago and had very few trees.”

The foundation has been planting there for eight years, using mostly oaks and some redbuds and pistache.

“Tree Davis was planting on their end, and they taught us how to do it on our end, how to grow seedlings from acorns and buckhorn seeds,” said Wilkinson.

Early in 2011 the two groups will join to plant trees between the two towns.

“In the next five years, we’ll probably have trees all along the corridor. I think it will be pretty fabulous as years go by.”

Interestingly enough, the two cities first planned to join their towns with trees back in 1903, according to Wilkinson. A women’s civic club in Woodland, in response to Arbor Day, joined with a similar group in Davis to plant palm trees.

“Palm trees were the rage. The California tourism bureau wanted to create a tropical feel so easterners would be thrilled to come out to California.”

The project fizzled out, but the area still has palm trees that were planted in that era.

Woodland Tree Foundation volunteers plant trees in downtown Woodland.

Modern Day Success

The Woodland Tree Foundation has received grants from California ReLeaf, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and PG&E (the latter to make sure the proper trees are grown under power lines). The foundation has a list of 40 or 50 volunteers who help with three or four plantings a year, mostly in the fall and on Arbor Day. Students from UC Davis and boys and girl scouts have helped.

Recently a woman in town who has a family charitable trust contacted the foundation. She was impressed by the foundation’s track record and volunteer spirit.

“She is interested in making Woodland a more walkable, shady city,” said Wilkinson. “She has offered us a major gift to pay for a three-year strategic plan and funds to hire our first ever paid part-time coordinator. This will enable Woodland Tree Foundation to reach deeper into the community.”

Wilkinson believes the foundatio

n is leaving an incredible tree legacy.

“A lot of us feel what we’re doing is special. Trees need care, and we’re leaving them better for the next generation.”

Woodland Tree Foundation

Community members gather to help plant trees.

Year founded: 2000

Joined Network: 2004

Board Members: 14

Staff: None

Projects include

: Downtown & other in-fill street plantings and waterings, an Arbor Day event, and plantings along Highway 113

Website: http://groups.dcn.org/wtf

The $167,000 grant for UCSDC’s Woods to the Hoods project will allow the Urban Corps to plant about 400 trees in three low-income, high-crime, and severely underserved Redevelopment Areas within San Diego. Combined, the three areas — Barrio Logan, City Heights and San Ysidro – represent mixed-use neighborhoods of light industrial businesses and homes, near ship repair facilities and shipyards; and one of the busiest border crossings in the world, with more than 17 million vehicles crossing daily between the U.S. and Mexico.

Corps members will not only be gaining valuable on-the-job training as part of this project, but will also be working closely with the people and businesses in the targeted neighborhoods with the goal of improving air quality, adding shade and enhancing the livability of these areas.

Fast Facts for the UCSDC ARRA Grant

Jobs created: 7

Jobs retained: 1

Trees Planted: 400

Trees Maintained: 100

Job Hours Contributed to 2010 Work Force: 3,818

Lasting legacy: Once completed, this project will have provided critical training in the green jobs sector for young adults while also creating a healthier, cleaner, and more livable environment for both San Diego residents and visitors.

“In addition to the benefits of trees in mitigating pollution and beautifying an area, tree planting and the care and maintenance of trees is a wonderful way for neighbors to come together in support of their communities.” – Sam Lopez, Director of Operations, Urban Corps of San Diego County.

The Greater Modesto Tree Foundation owes its origins to a French photographer who came to town in 1999 wanting to photograph the largest and most unique trees. He had a contract with Fuji Film and had heard about Modesto’s fame as a Tree City.

Chuck Gilstrap, who became the foundation’s first president, recalls the story. Gilstrap, then the city’s superintendent of urban forestry, and Peter Cowles, director of public works, took the photographer around to shoot trees.

Later when Gilstrap was helping the photographer get ready to leave town, the photographer said in very broken English, “How can we plant a tree for every baby born in the world for the year 2000?”

Gilstrap mentioned the conversation to Cowles, who said, “Even though we couldn’t plant a tree for every child born in 2000, maybe we could do it for every child born in Modesto.”

Parents and grandparents loved the idea. A year later, thanks to a federal Millennium Green grant and hundreds of volunteers, the fledgling group had planted 2,000 trees (because it was the year 2000) along a mile-and-a-half stretch of Dry Creek Regional Park Riparian Basin, a tributary of the Tuolomne River that runs through the southern part of town.

The organization applied for non-profit status soon after and continued its “Trees for Tots” program. Trees for Tots continues to be the largest tree planting program organized by the foundation, with more than 4,600 Valley Oaks planted to date. The funding comes from California ReLeaf grants.

Kerry Elms, GMTF's President, plants a tree at a Stanislaus Shade Tree Partnership event in 2009.

6,000 Trees

In the 10 years of its existence, the Greater Modesto Tree Foundation has planted over 6,000 trees, according to current president Kerry Elms (perhaps an appropriate name).

“We are an all-volunteer group and, except for an insurance policy and the cost of maintaining our web site, all donations and membership fees are used to provide trees for our various programs,” he said. “All work related to our projects is performed by our members and community volunteers. We have a large number of groups (Boy and Girl Scouts, schools, churches, civic groups and many other volunteers) that assist with planting and other efforts. Our volunteers have totaled over 2,000 since we began.”

Elms said they never have trouble getting volunteers. Youth groups are especially encouraged to get involved. The City of Modesto is a strong partner in many of the foundation’s planting projects.

Stanislaus Shade Tree Partnership

The foundation plants nearly 40 trees five times a year as part of the Stanislaus Shade Tree Partnership, which plants shade trees in low income neighborhoods. From its beginning, the organization has created wonderful partnerships, and this project is done in conjunction with the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), the Sheriff’s Department, Police Department, City Urban Forestry Division and many volunteers.

The foundation sends out its arborist a week before the planting to make sure the tree size and site are appropriate (not on the north side or too close to the homes). MID buys the trees And the Sheriff’s Department delivers them. Each home can receive up to five trees.

“The reason MID is supporting this effort is that if the trees are planted appropriately, they will shade the home, causing a 30 percent energy savings with less air conditioning needed in the hot summer months,” said Ken Hanigan, public benefits coordinator for MID. “We have found that the homeowner needs to have an invested interest and then the family will have more of a tendency to maintain the trees. Therefore, the family is required to dig the holes.

“It is a feat of love and community effort that is just amazing,” Hanigan said.

Memorial Plantings

The foundation makes it possible for memorial or living testimonial trees to be planted in honor of friends or family. The foundation provides the tree and a certificate and helps the donor to select the variety and location of the tree. The donors provide the funding.

Greater Modesto Tree Foundation volunteers plant a tree during Jewish Arbor Day festivities.

These dedications are heart warming for the donors, and they can have interesting backgrounds. Elms recounted a recent planting on a golf course. A group of men had played golf for many years on the course and when one of the members died, the others decided to honor him by replacing a tree that had fallen on the course after the flood of 1998. The spot they chose was right on the turn of a fairway that had always been in the way of the golfers. When the tree is grown, many other golfers will be challenged by that tree.

Grow Out Center

In an effort to grow their own trees, the foundation has collaborated with the Sheriff’s Department Honor Farm, which trains low-risk offenders to plant and care for seedlings until they are large enough to plant.

The foundation also distributes and plants trees on Earth Day, Arbor Day and Jewish Arbor Day.

Modesto has been a Tree City for 30 years, and the community takes pride in its urban forest. But, as in all California cities, Modesto has been under severe financial stress for the last several years and no longer has the staff or funding for some of its park and tree maintenance.

The Greater Modesto Tree Foundation and its many volunteers try to fill the gap where they can.

Donna Orozco is a freelance writer based in Visalia, California.

Life just happens. “It was never my grand plan to become an advocate for the Santa Monica Mountains, but one thing led to another,” said Jo Kitz, co-director of Mountains Restoration Trust (MRT). Her childhood hikes near Mt. Hood put her at ease in the mountains. As an adult, she met children who were afraid of bugs and wild things and realized that joy in nature wasn’t a given. Serving as a guide for the California Native Plant Society and the Sierra Club, she thrived as an outdoor educator for city-dwellers, “They thanked me as if they had been to the most marvelous party ever!”

Under a valley oak in Malibu Creek State Park in the Santa Monica Mountains, Kitz had her aha! moment as she observed a surrounding landscape devoid of these majestic trees. “Valley oaks were once the most important and plentiful native trees in the southern coastal ranges to Los Angeles County. They were decimated by early settlers who harvested them for farmland, fuel and lumber.” A shooting location for the TV series “M.A.S.H.,” the park had only a handful remaining. She took her conviction straight to the park superintendent. Soon she was planting trees at pre-approved locations. It seemed simple enough in the beginning.

Volunteers assemble tree tubes and wire cages to protect young seedlings from gophers and other browsers.

Learning to Start Small

Suzanne Goode, senior environmental scientist for the Angeles District of State Parks, described Kitz as “a fierce woman who never gives up, she keeps on caring and keeps on doing.” Only one tree survived from her first group of potted trees. Now that Kitz plants acorns, she loses very few, “When planting 5-gallon trees I soon learned that when you take trees out of a pot, the roots have to be cut or they remain restricted.” But there is nothing to stop the roots of acorns from seeking water. Of the 13 ecosystem circles planted in February, with five to eight trees per circle, only two trees failed to thrive. “They need very little irrigation once they are growing naturally. Over-watering is the worst thing you can do,” explained Kitz, “the roots come to the surface, and if they dry out without their feet in the water table, they die.”

In some years she has planted and then watered very little for five months. During the recent drought, however, more water has been needed to get the seedlings through the dry season. Native bunch grass provides groundcover. Squirrels and deer chomp on the grass if there is little else available, but if the grass takes root in the wet season it will survive these setbacks.

Using the Right Tools Helps Trees Thrive

MRT’s campground oaks improve the view from Goode’s park office window. “Oaks grow faster than people realize,” she said. At 25 feet, a young tree is tall enough to serve as a perch for hawks. For twenty years, Goode has approved the MRT planting sites, clearing them first with park archeologists so that Native American artifacts remain undisturbed.

Goode has mixed feelings about the required tree shields, which are fitted with nets to keep birds and lizards from getting trapped inside. “Protecting trees from the wind doesn’t allow them to develop the sturdy plant tissues they need to survive, so they have to be shielded for several years.” She acknowledged that campground trees need the shields to protect young trees from the occasional overzealous weed-whacker. “Myself, I prefer to plant an acorn and let it fend for itself,” said Goode, who has planted plenty during her career.

The weed-whacker is an indispensable tool for nurturing young trees. “When we started we didn’t think we needed a pre-emergent. We were so wrong, the weeds flourished!” said Kitz, who encourages native perennials as substitute for herbicides. Natives such as creeping rye, poverty weed and equestrian ragweed maintain a green carpet around the trees even during dry summers when the rest of the landscape is golden. She weed-whacks around the perennials in the fall to reseed the next year’s growth. By cutting back the dried brush, the owls and coyotes can eliminate the troublesome gophers that can easily destroy them. Every acorn is enclosed in a gopher-proof wire cage.

The bucket brigade provides acorns and the surrounding vegetation with a strong start.

Creating a Sense of Place Through Partnership

“You can’t imagine how many mistakes can be made while digging a hole and sticking an acorn in,” said Kitz, who couldn’t replant Malibu Creek State Park without lots of help. Her first partners were at-risk youth from Outward Bound Los Angeles. The youth tree-planting teams were active for five years, but when funding ended Kitz sought out a new partner that could carry on independently. This made time for her other pursuits, the acquisition of land to expand and connect Santa Monica Mountain trails and habitats.

Cody Chappel, Mountain Restoration Coordinator for TreePeople, another Los Angeles-based urban forestry nonprofit organization, is her current on-the-ground expert in acorn quality control. He secures a tree’s future with a few enthusiastic volunteers who can only spare three hours to learn about the care and nurturing of an acorn. Chappel collects the adapted acorns from the park and soaks them in a bucket. Sinkers get planted, floaters do not, since air indicates insect damage. He talks of the mountains as “the lungs of LA, the source of the airshed.”

Chappel hosts MRT planting events at regular intervals, tapping into thousands of members and a celebrity-studded board of directors who pull in funding from mega-donors Disney and Boeing.

Kitz’s favorite spot in the park these days is an east-facing slope, where a young oak grove will one day inspire stories of “place” and imagination. Chumash tribes once gathered acorns here to make mush in the park’s grinding holes. The stories of the grinding holes don’t make sense without the oaks. Kitz imagined bringing them back, and by doing so found her place in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The ARRA funding will allow California ReLeaf to distribute grants to 17 urban forestry projects throughout the state, planting more than 23,000 trees, creating or retaining close to 200 jobs, and providing job training for scores of young people over the next two years.

ARRA funding has been responsible for a variety of green jobs including jobs in solar panel installation, alternative transportation, fire suppression, and more. The California ReLeaf grant is exceptional in that it provides jobs by planting and maintaining urban trees.

Job creation and retention, particularly in economically distressed areas, is the main focus of the projects.

“These dollars are making a big difference,” Sandy Macias, program manager for Urban and Community Forestry at the US Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Region, said. “They really are creating jobs and there’s a myriad of benefits that come from urban forestry.”

California ReLeaf’s $6 million is just a small portion of the $1.15 billion the Forest Service was authorized to distribute, but advocates are hopeful that it signifies a shift in how people view urban forestry.

“I’m hoping this grant and others like it will raise the visibility of urban forestry,” said Martha Ozonoff, executive director of California ReLeaf.

While the grant is part of a huge federal effort, Californians will feel the immediate benefits of jobs and a healthy tree canopy in their own neighborhoods, she added.

“Trees aren’t planted on a federal level, they’re planted on a local level and our grant is helping transform communities in a very real way,” Ozonoff said.

One important requirement for ARRA funding was that projects be “shovel-ready,” so jobs are created immediately. One example of where that is happening is in Los Angeles, where the Los Angeles Conservation Corps is already using its $500,000 grant to recruit and train young people to plant and care for trees in Los Angeles’ neediest

neighborhoods. The project focuses on South and Central Los Angeles, where many of the Corps’ members call home.

“We’re targeting areas that have the lowest canopy and also have the highest unemployment rates, poverty levels and high school dropouts ¬¬¬– not surprisingly, they coincide,” said Dan Knapp, deputy director of the L.A. Conservation Corps.

The L.A. Conservation Corps has for years been providing job training to at-risk teens and young adults, equipping them with a variety of hands-on career skills. About 300 men and women enter the Corps each year, receiving not only job training, but also life skills, education, and job placement assistance. According to Knapp, the Corps currently has a waiting list of about 1,100 young adults.

This new grant, he said, will allow the organization to bring in about 20 people between the ages of 18 and 24 to receive urban forestry training. They will be cutting concrete and building tree wells, planting 1,000 trees, providing maintenance and water to the young trees, and removing stakes from established trees.

The L.A. Conservation Corps project is among the larger of the California ReLeaf grants. But even smaller grants, like the one awarded to Tree Fresno, are having a big impact on communities hard hit by the recession.

“Our city literally has no budget for trees. We have some of the worst air quality in the nation and here we are in desperate need of trees to clean the air,” said Karen Maroot, executive director for Tree Fresno.

Tree Fresno’s efforts to remedy some of these problems has been boosted with a $130,000 ARRA grant to plant 300 trees and provide tree care education to residents of Tarpey Village, an unincorporated area of Fresno County Island. The grant will help the organization retain three positions and relies heavily on engaging community volunteers. Outreach materials will be provided in English, Spanish and Hmong, the languages represented in the Tarpey Village area.

Maroot said the grant will go far in providing much-needed healthy trees to replace the elderly and decaying Modesto Ash trees in the area. But it is the community-building aspect of the project – residents taking an active role in improving their neighborhood – that is most exciting, she said.

“The residents are thrilled,” she said. “They are just so grateful for this opportunity.”

California ReLeaf American Recovery & Reinvestment Act Grant program – grant recipients

San Francisco Bay Area

• City of Daly City: $100,000; 3 jobs created, 2 jobs retained; remove hazardous trees and plant 200 new trees; provide educational outreach to local schools

• Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation: $130,000; 7 part-time jobs created; plant 500 trees in West Oakland

• Friends of the Urban Forest: $750,000; 4 jobs created, 9 jobs retained; job training for at-risk youth in San Francisco; plant 2,000 trees, maintain an additional 6,000 trees

• Our City Forest: $750,000; 19 jobs created; plant over 2,000 trees and care for an additional 2,000 in the city of San Jose; job training program for low-income residents

• Urban ReLeaf: $200,000; 2 jobs created, 5 jobs retained; working with at-risk youth to plant 600 trees in Oakland and Richmond

Central Valley/Central Coast

• City of Chico: $100,000; 3 jobs created; inspect and prune old growth trees in Bidwell Park

• Community Services and Employment Training: $200,000; 10 jobs created; job training for at-risk youth to plant and maintain trees in Visalia and Porterville

• Goleta Valley Beautiful: $100,000; 10 part-time jobs created; plant, maintain and water 271 trees in Goleta and Santa Barbara County

• City of Porterville: $100,000; 1 job retained; plant and maintain 300 trees

• Sacramento Tree Foundation: $750,000; 11 jobs created; plant 10,000 trees in the greater Sacramento area

• Tree Fresno: $130,000; 3 jobs retained; plant 300 trees and provide community outreach in Tarpey Village, an economically-disadvantaged neighborhood of Fresno County

Los Angeles/San Diego

• Hollywood Beautification Team: $450,000; 20 jobs created; academic and vocational training in urban forestry; plant over 700 shade trees

• Koreatown Youth and Community Center: $138,000; 2.5 jobs retained; plant 500 street trees in economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods of Los Angeles

• Los Angeles Conservation Corps: $500,000; 23 jobs created; provide job-readiness training and job placement assistance to at-risk youth; plant 1,000 trees

• North East Trees: $500,000; 7 jobs created; provide 50 young adults with on-the-job urban forestry training; replant and maintain fire-damaged trees; street tree planting program

• Urban Corps of San Diego County: $167,000; 8 jobs created; plant 400 trees within three City of San Diego Redevelopment Areas

Statewide

• California Urban Forests Council: $400,000; 8 jobs created; 3 large-scale tree-planting events in San Diego, Fresno County and the Central Coast

From L to R: Greg McPherson, Andy Lipkis, Martha Ozonoff, Ray Tretheway, Desiree Backman

On October 28, over 30 people from state agencies and legislative staff attended a brown bag lunch session that provided an overview of urban greening benefits and how urban greening could be used as a viable, cost-effective solution when trying to solve water, air, and community problems.

Andy Lipkis, Founder and President of TreePeople, showed the audience several examples of communities that have used urban greening to reduce water pollutants and contaminants and reduce soil erosion, runoff, and flooding. Greg McPherson, Urban Forest Research Director at the Center for Urban Forestry Research, talked about how trees and urban greening can sequester carbon, mitigate climate change, modify temperatures, filter air pollutants, and conserve energy. Ray Tretheway, Founder and Executive Director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, explained how trees can increase property value, attract consumers along with new businesses and communities, and reduce crime. The Deputy Director of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, Dr. Desiree Backman, described how living in green communities can lower obesity rates, reduce the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and increase activity levels.

Andy Lipkis, Founder and President of TreePeople, speaks about the importance of urban greening.

Funding for this project was generously provided by the Urban Forestry Program at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), through Proposition 84 bond funds.

For more information, follow the links below to see each speaker’s PowerPoint presentation and to the companion publication, “Urban Greening: Integrated Approaches…Multiple Solutions”.

Engaging Nature & Communities for Safe & Resilient Cities- Andy Lipkis

Urban Greening: Energy, Air & Climate – Greg McPherson

Urban Greening is a Great Investment - Ray Tretheway

Healthy Places, Healthy People: The Urban Forest Meets Public Health – Desiree Backman

Urban Greening: Integrated Approaches…Multiple Solutions

A small but dedicated group in Atwater called the Tree Partners Foundation is changing the landscape and changing lives. Founded and headed by the enthusiastic Dr. Jim Williamson, the fledgling organization has already formed partnerships with the Merced Irrigation District, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, the National Arbor Day Foundation, Merced College, local school districts and city governments, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the Federal Penitentiary at Atwater.

Williamson, who co-founded the Tree Partners Foundation with his wife Barbara in 2004, says the organization grew out of his decades-long practice of giving away trees. The Williamsons value trees for many reasons: the way they connect people to nature; their contribution to clean air and water; and their ability to reduce noise, lower utility bills, and provide shade.

Tree planting, maintenance, and tree education round out the foundation's services and involve both youth and adults.

“My wife and I were sitting around thinking, we’re not going to live forever, so we’d better start a foundation if we want this to continue,” Williamson says. The Tree Partners Foundation is made up of just seven board members, but they are influential members of the community, including Dr. Williamson, Atwater’s mayor, a retired college professor, the director of maintenance for the Atwater Elementary School District, and the city’s urban forester.

Despite its size, the foundation has already established a variety of programs and has many more in the works. Williamson and others credit the group’s success to a strong board of directors and the formation of so many important partnerships. “We’ve been very fortunate,” Williamson says. “If I need something it always seems to be there.”

Core Goals

Like many nonprofit urban forestry organizations, the Tree Partners Foundation provides educational opportunities for Atwater and area residents, offering seminars on planting, maintaining, and monitoring the urban forest. The foundation also participates regularly in tree plantings, conducts tree inventories, and provides tree maintenance.

The Tree Partners Foundation has made partnering with government agencies a primary goal. The group provides input on city tree policies, partners with local agencies on grant applications, and urges local governments to place an emphasis on caring for the urban forest.

One accomplishment the foundation is particularly proud of is its success in convincing the City of Atwater to create an urban forester position. “In these [difficult] economic times I was able to show them that it was to their economic advantage to make trees a priority,” Williamson says.

Growing Trees, Gaining Skills

One of the most important partnerships the foundation has formed is with the Federal Penitentiary at Atwater. Several years ago Williamson, who as a child helped his grandfather with their family’s small arboretum, connected with the former warden of the penitentiary, Paul Schultz, who as a child had helped his own grandfather in his work as the landscaper at Princeton University. The two men dreamed of creating a small nursery at the penitentiary that would provide vocational training to the inmates and trees to the community.

The Tree Partners Foundation now has a 26-acre nursery at the site, with room to expand. It is manned by volunteers from the penitentiary’s minimum security facility who gain valuable training to prepare them for life outside the prison’s walls. For Williamson, who together with his wife is a counselor in private practice, providing an opportunity for the inmates to learn nursery skills is particularly rewarding. “It’s just a wonderful partnership,” he says of the relationship formed with the penitentiary.

Bigger plans for the nursery are underway. The foundation is working with Merced College to offer satellite classes to the inmates that will provide a certifiable vocational program. The inmates will study topics such as plant identification, tree biology, tree and soil relations, water management, tree nutrition and fertilization, tree selection, pruning, and diagnosis of plant disorders.

Nursery Yields Local Partners

The nursery supplies trees to a variety of agencies and organizations, including local governments, schools, and churches. “We wouldn’t be able to put in the street trees we have and maintain the street trees we have if it wasn’t for the Tree Partners Foundation,” says Atwater Mayor and Tree Partners Foundation Board Member Joan Faul.

The nursery also provides trees suitable for planting under power lines to PG&E for use as replacement trees. And the nursery grows trees for the Merced Irrigation District’s annual customer tree give-away. This year the foundation expects to supply 1,000 15-gallon trees for the irrigation district’s give-away program. “It’s a big cost savings to them, plus it provides funding for our organization,” says Atwater’s Urban Forester and Tree Partners Foundation Board Member Bryan Tassey, whose many jobs include overseeing the nursery.

Tassey, who also teaches at Merced College, says he’s amazed at how much the nursery and the program have evolved in such a short time. “A year ago it was bare ground,” he says. “We’ve come quite a ways.”

Seed Money

Much of the Tree Partners’ accomplishments can be attributed to successful grant writing.

For example, the foundation received a $50,000 USDA Forest Service grant. The generosity of local organizations—including a $17,500 donation from the Atwater Rotary Club and in-kind donations from local businesses—have also bolstered the Tree Partners’ success.

Williamson says the organization is not interested in competing with local nurseries, but rather in earning enough money to continue its work in the community. “My goal in my lifetime is to make the nursery sustainable and I believe we will,” he says.

One goal the Tree Partners Foundation has been working toward for several years is a partnership with the National Arbor Day Foundation (NADF) that would allow the Tree Partners Foundation to act as the provider and shipper of all of NADF’s trees sent to its California members.

Organizations and businesses shipping trees from outside California face strict agricultural requirements. The result is that when California residents join NADF, they receive bare-root trees (6- to 12-inch trees with no soil around the roots) shipped from Nebraska or Tennessee.

The Tree Partners Foundation is in negotiations to become the supplier for NADF’s California members. The Tree Partners would provide tree plugs—live plants with soil at the root ball—which the foundation believes would mean healthier, fresher trees for NADF’s members.

At first, Tassey says, the Tree Partners would need to contract out to local nurseries for many of the trees. But he says he sees no reason why the foundation’s nursery couldn’t one day supply all of the trees to NADF’s California members. According to Tassey, the National Arbor Day Foundation’s spring and fall shipments currently provide about 30,000 trees annually to California. “The potential in California is huge, which the Arbor Day Foundation is very excited about,” he says. “That’s scratching the surface. We’re anticipating possibly a million trees in five years.”

That, says Tassey and Williamson, would be one more step toward financial stability for the organization and a healthier urban forest for Atwater and beyond. “We’re not rich, but we’re well on our way to becoming sustainable,” says Williamson.