Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
Local cities within Santa Barbara County are being recognized as “Tree Cities” through the Arbor Day Foundation highlighting environmentally friendly towns.
Santa Barbara, Goleta, Lompoc, and Santa Barbara County are being recognized by the nonprofit for understanding the benefits trees bring to urban environments.
The Tree City USA program provides communities with a four-step framework to maintain and grow their tree cover. It also provides an avenue to celebrate their work, showing residents, visitors, and the entire country that they’re committed to the mission of environmental change.
The four requirements are maintaining a tree board or department, having a tree care ordinance, dedicating an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita, and hosting an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.
“If ever there was a time for trees, now is that time. Communities worldwide are facing issues with air quality, water resources, personal health and well-being, energy use, and extreme heat and flooding. Goleta is doing its part to address these challenges for residents both now and in the future,” stated the City of Goleta in a press release.
Started in 1976, Tree City USA is one of the Arbor Day Foundation’s oldest programs with the first cohort comprised of 42 communities in 16 states. Today, the program includes more than 3,600 communities from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Santa Barbara is one of the first being a 43 year member with ont Santa Rosa, Burlingame, Burbank, and Sacramento ahead.
Lompoc has been a member of the organization for 33 years, Santa Barbara County for 19 years, and Goleta for 11 years.
Goleta Parks and Open Space Manager George Thomson, Public Tree Advisory Commission Chair Jessie Altstatt, Mayor Paula Perotte, Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Deborah Williams and Public Works Maintenance Supervisor Jorge Flores planting trees at Stow Grove Park for Arbor Day (courtesy)
Thanks for the correction LETMEGO 🙂
I’m still bothered that bikes and paved surfaces trump trees . Also puzzled by the differentiation between native and non-native trees… what percentage of the south coast urban forest is native? Earliest photos I’ve seen of the Modoc strip show an absolutely barren landscape. How long does a particular plant have to thrive in an area before it earns native status? A thousand years? A million? Should a Tree City prioritize only native flora?
Eucalyptus are problematic for many reasons, and of course, the plan is to plant more trees.
What is the city arborist going to be doing about the tree at Shoreline Park, where the big birds that go to the bathroom all over and kill the tree are nesting they started down at Summerland and the freeway project tore those dead trees down. Then they were on Channel Drive on a private residence and I think that private people cut their trees down now they’re at the city Shoreline Park doing the same thing. Any City plans?
Meanwhile we are about to remove 40+ palms to provide a recreational bike path.
This is incorrect. From the County of SB website:
Alignment A would require the removal of up to 48 trees including 29 palm trees. This is a decrease from the initial estimate of up to 60 trees, including 35 palm trees. No trees would be removed from the Modoc Preserve.
Alignment B would require the removal of up to 21 trees, including zero palm trees. Most of the trees would be eucalyptus trees and other non-native trees. This is a decrease from the initial estimate of up to 41 trees, including 25 palm trees. Three trees would be removed from the Modoc Preserve. Any trees that are removed will be replaced in coordination with the managers of the Modoc Preserve.
I’m a bit confused
Didn’t Santa Barbara just recently remove mostly every tree off of State Street ?
But now claiming “Tree City” ?
Who speaks for the trees? A Tree City ought to responsibly address the stand of City Historic Landmark Italian stone pines on Anapamu Street. The beautiful, iconic canopy they formed is long-gone as they are ending the end of their natural life, exacerbated by environmental stresses and modern life. But as they scarily fall down–as one did during the rains–or the City cuts them down, an appropriate replacement plan needs to be developed and implemented that honors the past and is sustainable for the future. At the City’s request during the worst of the drought, the Pearl Chase Society invested many thousands of dollars in the “irricades” to extend the lives of those trees, but the City doesn’t seem to even bother to use them anymore–one has been standing on end for months. Not sure what criteria this Tree City group uses, but they should have paid better attention to the lack of leadership on this arboreal issues, as well as the others noted in the comments.
Thank you so much for bringing up those Italian Stone Pines, Salsipuedes. You are so right, and there are a number of other reasons that those (admittedly beautiful) trees need to be replaced, as they die off, with a different species of tree. The Italian Stone Pines are a shallow-rooted species, which explains why they fall over during wind events and when the soil gets too saturated. (It also explains why they keep buckling the street pavements and the sidewalks underneath them.) I live on Anapamu Street — under the Italian Stone Pines — so I am very aware of all the problems that they cause — for cars, bikes, and pedestrians — and how much they are costing the city to maintain.
Many species of beautiful, low-maintenance shade trees have deep roots, and would serve well to replace the Italian Stone Pines along Anapamu Street. Among them, I would recommend the Siberian Elms (you can see a beautiful row of mature specimens along Via el Cuadro in Goleta).
Are you listening, City Arboror?