Volunteers Plant 100 Trees at Stow Grove Park

By the City of Goleta

One hundred new trees are in the ground at Stow Grove Park thanks to a great community effort.

Approximately 90 volunteers turned out this past Saturday morning, September 16, 2023, for a community tree planting event. Every shovel was taken as volunteers of all ages, including Councilmembers and Parks and Recreation Commissioners, spent two hours actively working together to get all 100 trees planted.

One of the many great volunteers at the event

The City of Goleta’s Parks and Open Space Manager George Thomson said, “It was a heartwarming sight to see such a great turnout and cross-section of our community coming together and willing to push up their sleeves, grab a shovel and get dirty to ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the pristine beauty of this treasured park in Goleta.”

The primary purpose of the tree planting event was to help restore the grove at the park which has been impacted by drought conditions over the past 15 years. While some portions of the grove have remained strong and vigilant, others have declined and died. The 100 new trees will help get the grove back to what Edgar Stow envisioned when he planted the original grove of about 300 coastal redwoods in the 1930s.

A volunteer watering one of the newly planted trees

Of the 100 trees that were planted this past Saturday, 75 were coast redwoods and 25 incense cedars which look like the coast redwoods but require much less irrigation. Over the next few years, these newly planted trees will be looked after closely by City of Goleta Parks and Open Space staff including regular watering, pruning, and fertilization.

A big thank you goes out to everyone who volunteered to make this event possible. Stay tuned for more tree planting events in the future.

For additional information about volunteer opportunities with City of Goleta Parks, Recreation & Open Spaces, please contact us via email at adoptapark@cityofgoleta.org or by phone at 805-961-7558.

Parks & Recreation Commissioner Stacie Furia and family