Let’s grow trees together! In the San Diego region, we can share motivations, knowledge, and resources to increase our urban forest. If you are interested in the planting and long-term care of trees, we want to work with you. Are you willing to reach out within your community to identify locations for trees, encourage tree planting and care, and support trees as they mature? Contact us to share your inspiration and ideas!
Two tree planting initiatives (TPIs) are getting started in the City of San Diego. Trees for Communities and Ready, Set, Grow San Diego, a $10 million five-year grant from the USDA Forest Service. Tree San Diego and five other cities also received grants, see list.
- Several community groups have funding and capacity to contribute to those two tree campaigns in the City of San Diego. These include Groundwork San Diego Chollas-Creek, the Urban Collaborative Project, and Transformative Climate Communities implementation grant with Environmental Health Coalition and other cooperators.
- Kate Sessions Commitment (“Kate’s Trees”) is working with other communities to increase their capacity to participate in those projects: Linda Vista with Bayside Community Center, Otay Mesa-Nestor with South Bay Sustainable Communities, and Skyline-Paradise Hills with SD Urban Sustainability Coalition.
What do we need?
Here’s the fundamentals for growing a healthy canopy – together.
- People. Trees bring us shade, places for socializing or solitude, clean air, a sense of community in our urban lives, and more.
- Purpose. It takes a commitment to grow a tree. Communities can envision tree-lined streets, parks and neighborhoods. Organizations can meet some of their missions with the many benefits of trees.
- Places. Trees can be grown in back- and front-yards, public streets, parks, residential neighborhoods, homeowners’ associations, parking lots, at schoolyards-universities-colleges, and other institutional and commercial properties.
- Plan. Confirm places to plant trees. Start with tree mapping to identify suitable places.
- Purchase. At the scale of tree campaigns, grants are essential for tree planting and watering. There are many other local resources to get a tree.
- Planting and young tree care practices will ensure that trees are healthy and long-lived.
What are the challenges?
- Community groups are beginning to explore places for growing more trees, starting with tree mapping and learning from the process that was used to identify priority places in Barrio Logan.
- Read Golden Shovel article, with recommendations for successful urban tree planting initiatives.
- Articles about best practices for yard-tree distribution programs — Boldly planting for the next generation – Urban tree mortality
- Urban Tree Planting Challenges in San Diego County, 2022, 27-page report, from Tree San Diego.
- Tree Planting Cost-Benefit Analysis: A Case Study for Urban Forest Equity in Los Angeles, 26-page report, from TreePeople, 2021.