THE EAST PALO ALTO TREE INITIATIVE
Professor maathai's Visit | Description | Youth Program | volunteer | Trees

Professor Wangari Maathai's Visit

Patricia Foster, City of East Palo Alto Vice Mayor, Wangari Maathai, and Ruben Abrica, former mayor of East Palo Alto

During her visit to East Palo Alto on April 30, 2006, Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai challenged us all, including little children, to each plant ten trees. The East Palo Alto Tree Initiative allows us to start meeting her challenge. We invite you to support this effort by joining us at plantings and workshops or by simply noticing and enjoying the new and existing trees in our community. 

“I am happy to join you in launching the campaign to plant trees in East Palo Alto.  I will keep writing back to find out how far you have gone, I want to know of your progress because, here on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, East Palo Alto has changed and become a truly green city.”

Prof. Wangari Maathai
Founder of the Greenbelt Movement
Assistant Minister for the Environment,  Kenya
Recipient of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize

Description

East Bayshore road Before and After
Photos by Urban Advantage

The East Palo Alto Tree Initiative (EPA TI) is a collaborative effort by the City of East Palo Alto, the California Department of Forestry, and Canopy, a non-profit urban forestry group to plant 1000 trees in East Palo Alto by 2010.

Who is paying for the trees?  The primary source of funding is a grant from the California Department of Forestry. The grant will pay for planting the trees, installing irrigation systems, and maintaining the trees for the first three years.  Separately, Canopy raised funds to meet the grant’s matching funds requirements.

Who will plant the trees?  Because of the size of the effort, a professional landscape contractor will install all the irrigation systems and will plant over half of the trees.  Community volunteers led by professional arborists will plant the remaining trees.  Volunteer days will be set up and training will be provided to the volunteers.  Many of the volunteer plantings will involve planting seeds or acorns and these projects will be wonderful learning experiences for children.

What kind of trees will be planted?  Twenty different species of trees will be planted during the initial phase.  All are drought-tolerant and were selected for their strong structural characteristics and the fact that they won’t disrupt pavement and sidewalks.  Nearly all are evergreen and thus will not lose all their leaves during the winter.  About one-third of the trees will be oaks of different varieties.  Many of the trees have been selected because of their beautiful flowering habits, such as Marina Madrone, Strawberry Tree, African Olive, Scots Pine, Coast Live Oak, Catalina Cherry.

Where will the first trees be planted?  The City of East Palo Alto identified the following areas for the initial phase of the program.  The first four areas are all along the Highway 101 sound walls.

• East Bayshore between Clarke and Pulgas
• East Bayshore between Euclid and Holland
• West Bayshore between San Francisquito Creek and Cooley
• West Bayshore between Manhattan and Addison
• The median of Newbridge Street between Saratoga and Poplar
• The median of University from O’Brien to beyond Purdue

When will the trees be planted?  The fall and winter months are the best time to plant because the winter rains help get the trees well established before the summer heat.  The goal is to have the majority of the trees planted during the current planting season (fall and winter of 2006/2007) and the remainder planted during the next planting season.

Who will take care of the trees?  The trees selected are all drought-tolerant.  However, for proper establishment, all young trees need to be watered in the first few summers after planting.  All trees along the sound walls will be automatically watered by an irrigation system.  Trees in the street medians will be watered regularly by watering trucks.  Each summer Canopy will organize community volunteers to survey the health of each tree and to determine whether any corrective actions are needed.  The volunteers will do minor maintenance tasks, while more significant actions will be referred to the City or to a professional arborist. The City will assume the responsibility for long-term maintenance. 

Why do we need more trees?  There are many documented benefits of a healthy urban forest.  Not only are trees beautiful, they fight global warming and create a cleaner and more livable environment, in particular:

• Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and produce oxygen.  In one year, a single tree can absorb as much CO2 as is produced by a car driving 26,000 miles
• Trees clean the air.  They remove dust, particulates and pollutants responsible for asthma
• Trees provide insulation from summer heat and winter cold, thus lowering energy costs
• Trees intercept rainwater, reducing storm runoff and the risk of flooding
• Trees bring people together.  Tree plantings provide opportunities for community involvement and empowerment while improving the quality of life in our neighborhoods
• Natural harmony is strengthened in a community with a healthy urban forest.

Youth Program

The EPA TI Youth Program is a partnership with Opportunities Industrial Center West that involves ten young adults from East Palo Alto. The program is designed to encourage leadership and future tree stewardship. The youth are busy behind the scenes assembling portions of the irrigation system and assembling protective shelters for the Oak acorns and Catalina Cherry seeds. On volunteer days the youth are in the spotlight answering questions and showing new volunteers the method we use for working rootballs and planting seeds.

Damar and Amanda working roots at the golf course and the team gettting trained to assemble irrigation parts by Jensen

Volunteer for the East Palo Alto Tree Initiative!

Volunteers working rootballs and planting seeds for the at the East Palo Alto Tree Initiative.

The EPA TI has come along way. All of the trees and seeds/acorns have been planted and many of the seeds/acorns have begun to sprout. We started the planting process long before the first tree was ever put in the ground. First a Certified Arborist methodically choose the right trees for the right planting locations. Time was taken to choose trees with the healthiest root balls we could find. Even the healthiest root balls of nursery stock trees need a little working over to ensure that the roots would spread through the soil with vigor. Our first volunteer events addressed just that. Volunteers spent several Saturdays, one Sunday and three weekdays personally inspecting and tending the root balls of about 675 trees. Our second phase of volunteer events was planting the oak acorns and cherry seeds. We are now on to the mulching stage. Mulch will help protect the trees from moisture loss, supress weeds and return organic matter to the soil.

We do not have any mulch events scheduled at this time though we could arrange for one. If you are interested in an event for a few to many please contact the Canopy office (650) 964-6110.

Trees

East Palo Alto Tree Initiative trees planted along West Bayshore Road.

The EPA TI planting plan was designed by arborist Dave Muffly

Marina Madrone (Arbutus 'Marina')
Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo)
'Tuscarora' Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia 'Tuscarora')
Primrose Tree (Lagunaria pattersonii)
Flaxleaf Paperbark (Melaleuca linariifolia)
African Olive (Olea Africana)
Mediterranean Olive (Olea europaea)
Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris)
Catalina Cherry (Prunus lyonii)*
Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia)
Arizona White Oak (Quercus arizonica)
Engelman Oak (Quercus engelmannii)
Dwarf Interior Live Oak (Quercus parvula)*
Netleaf Oak (Quercus rugosa)
Cork Oak (Quercus suber)
Island Oak (Quercus tomentella)
Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)
Tipu Tree (Tipuana tipu)
Water Gum (Tristania laurina)
Elegant Water Gum (Tristania laurina 'Elegans'

* Planted from seed/acorn