Trees, Urban Ecology, and Open Space
Trees are beautiful and wonderful living beings. Forest Bathing, walking in forest or nature quietly without conversation taking in the smells and sounds, is shown to improve health. People need access to open spaces full of biodiversity. We need to grow insects to feed the birds and create a food web above above and below ground, feeding soil organisms for a living soil ecosphere. Oak trees also are the best native plant for carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Petaluma has reduce our freshwater use over 30% this year compared to historical use. We need to sacrifice our lawns and save our trees by watering trees deeply at least every 2 weeks and turning off lawn sprinklers and even planning native plant gardens to replace our dead lawns. I grew trees at the native plant nursery at CGHS, planted them on campus and in creeks, supplied SCWA for riparian habitat. I joined the city Tree Advisory Committee, now Chair, wrote the Tree Technical Manual, started the effort to upgrade tree ordinances to protect trees, and got grants for trees we planted on Arbor Day. I joined ReLeaf Petaluma and was on team successfully getting grant to plant the 150 trees that 200 volunteers showed up to plant in Wiseman Park, and also helped write successful grant applications for $225K Urban Forestry Management Plan, 90K for planting trees in 6 parks on the eastside using recycled water.
With $1,000 grant I wrote, the Tree Advisory Committee planted redwood trees by the Field of Dreams in Lucchesi Park with the help of a scout troop and city staff.
The Environmental Club of PHS come out to McNear Park to apply wood chip mulch to trees under my supervision. This mulch helps conserve soil water. and reduces compaction.
ReLeaf Petaluma is a nonprofit not two years old. We developed an initiative to plant 10,000 trees in Petaluma to expand the urban canopy by 10%. AIA consultants who recently reviewed our city recommended an additional 10,000 trees along our streets. We already obtained several large grants totally over $380 K. This is just the beginning.
ReLeaf Petaluma volunteers helped students plant 15 trees in front of PHS working with the school district maintenance crew.
I helped ReLeaf Petaluma get a grant to plant 150 trees in Wiseman Park and we joined with city staff and Rebuild Together Petaluma (200 volunteers showed up) and we got all 150 trees in the ground in 5 hours. In this image I am training teens in the Youth Core under Petaluma People Services supervision.
The ReLeaf Petaluma team celebrating our recent successes planting trees and acquiring grants for Petaluma Urban Forestry.
Brown is the New Green applies to lawns. We want to save our trees with regular, biweekly deep watering. See the website linked to this image to learn more about watering trees during drought.
I initiated the process supported by several engaged citizens and ReLeaf Petaluma to set the goal of updating the city tree ordinances to protect more trees. The City Council made it one of the 10 goals for this coming year.
One of major accomplishments as Chair of the Tree Advisory Committee was the completion of the Petaluma Tree Technical Manual.