I was raised downtown in a Midwestern city where trees were few and far between, generally spindly parodies growing in small squares cut out of sidewalks. But we often visited my grandmother in a suburban part of the town. Her streets were lined for blocks with magnificent elms that reached across to touch to make a living Cathedral nave.
When San Diego began talking about trees as a part of its climate action plan I remembered those elms. Sadly, I also remembered how they were lost to Dutch Elm disease and how naked her neighborhood and many of our neighborhoods are without them.
Too often of the discussion about urban trees gets us into the question of climate change. But that is not an argument we need engage in. We can just concentrate on how beautiful trees make our community. We can just remember what it feels like to stand under a tree on a hot day to hear the wind blowing through the leaves. We can remember how it is 10° cooler just standing in the dappled shade.
The time has come to grasp an opportunity offered by the City, in partnership with San Diego Gas and Electric and Davey Resource Group, to turn our neighborhood into an urban forest. Last week I saw the beginning of that effort with the planning of San Diego Gas and Electric’s 150th tree in Allied Gardens.
Our local news organizations did a great job of recording the event and their reports are the best way that I can think of to let you see what happened that day. The links that follow (you may find it easier to reach those locations from the electronic version of this article on the website of the paper – sdnews.com/mission-times-courier/#/ will take you to clips from local television news programs.
FOX https://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=38e36cd7-d15b-4251-b2c1-b47f552574df
KUSI http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=824f6dc1-f23c-4be6-8cdf-521e73445251
CBS8 http://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=cedabbd1-6975-4d9b-9069-50bfad1874c9
NBC7 https://mms.tveyes.com/PlaybackPortal.aspx?SavedEditID=13d9cec0-df6a-466e-9bd9-e81a1ce00911
San Diego Gas and Electric will continue planting throughout the city but their contractual obligation for Allied Gardens ended with this recent event. The City will continue by planting another 150 trees at locations requested by the members of our community. After the City has planted a tree in the parkway, the verge between the sidewalk and the street curb, the City will water it for the next three years. Here are the links by which you can make the request for your tree. Free Tree SD | Trees | City of San Diego Official Website SDG&E General Tree List (google.com)
It may well be that the City cannot respond as quickly as we might prefer and it well may be that the allotment of trees will run out before they come to you. But the number of trees now available is only a starting place, the beginning of something splendid. We can expect that our requests for plantings will lead to a continuation of and expansion of this vital program.
Our thanks to Councilmember Raul Campillo (Pictured above, center, with SDG&E director of environmental services & sustainability Brittany Syz and Brian Widener with the City of San Diego’s forester department), Council District 7, for his enthusiastic support of this project.
His leadership and partnership in the project will lead to success in Allied Gardens and in all of the Navajo communities.
– Shain Haug is president AGGCC.
