City Of Trees
Sacramento is the City of Trees, a name that might perplex, especially when considering the arid climate. Its residents suffer mightily from exposure every year during the intense, months-long summers. Sacramento is not considered a woodland geographically, except perhaps for the riparian forests along the rivers and in the higher elevations where there is willow, California Black Walnut, etc. The majority of the city’s trees were planted by humans, though historical geography tells us that at one time, the valley was thick with growth, until the European settlers chopped them down and again later during the Gold Rush. However, it was likely close to the same time during the 1830s when residents began putting the trees BACK, probably after surviving their first summer. Then in 1849, John Sutter Jr., son of the great fortune-seekers, made history when he preserved four square miles of native trees on his property, and while establishing the town of Sacramento, an “outgrowth” of Sutter Fort. Also influential were the McClatchys, who regularly reported fractious tree behavior in the newspapers – all of which led to the “City of Trees” – a “moniker that began showing up around 1855,” (Sactown Magazine, 2023).
Sacramento currently boasts over one million trees, but not everyone dwelling within city limits is enjoying the “Urban Forest,” most likely because 90 percent of them are located on private property. So this is one of the reasons Sacramento City is now putting into motion its plan for attaining ‘maximum ecological capacity,’ which is years in the making. The Sacramento Draft Urban Forest Plan is posted online and details its aims to plant 25,000 trees per year – the amount needed to reach the goal of 540,000 by 2045, and will expand ‘canopy-coverage’ from (19) to 35 percent.
NEED MORE TREES
There are more trees in Sacramento than every other city in the U.S., including Los Angeles and New York. And surprisingly, it also has more than Paris, which has 8.8 percent canopy coverage, compared to Sacramento’s tree canopy of 23.6 percent, according to MIT’s Treepedia (2017) survey; ranking it third in the world, after Vancouver and Singapore. However, there remains these sizeable areas of the city that weren’t developed with tree inclusion in mind. Such neighborhoods, therefore, experience greater impact from pollution and climate change. So it will be interesting to see where these new trees end up being installed since those lucky residents can look forward to some lesser-known benefits, like improved mood and reduced rates of obesity, according to research.
A May 23’ Sacramento Bee article identifying the “6 places where Sacramento lives up to its name City of Trees,” identified the following areas:
McKinley Park – 32 acres, featuring Coast and Dawn Redwood trees; 120 ft. tall elms.
Capitol Park – 12 blocks = 40 acres in downtown; 800 trees and flowering shrubs.
Fabulous 40s – Tree-lined McMansion neighborhood; cedar over 100 years old.
William Land Park – Persian walnut, basswood, western sycamores, etc.
Southside Park – 44 varieties, including Willow Oak and Giant Sequoia.
Sac State – the Mohawk Nation “Tree of Peace” (the burial of weaponry).
Right now, before the start of the program, many new trees are being planted, and the canopy is expanding, but not at a rate fast enough to satisfy the urgent need. Apparently, the air in Sacramento could use some major improvement, and the American Lung Association lists Sacramento as the seventh most polluted city in the nation. SMUD, one of the large energy companies in Sacramento, is a clean energy advocate supporting many different climate initiatives, such as “Sacramento Shade,” a program offering 10 free trees, selected among 30 varieties, to every customer. If successful, it will reduce breathable carbon, generate additional oxygen, help cool homes as temperatures rise, beautify neighborhoods, and much more.
Meanwhile, there are some serious laws and penalties in Sacramento regulating everything to do with trees, and pertain to such things as removal and maintenance; shade ordinances for parking areas; and working near a “Heritage Tree” (large trees; native oaks, sycamores, and buckeyes) or a “Landmark Tree,” (“an especially prominent or stately tree on any land in Sacramento County”), for example. Laws which if ignored, could get someone fined up to $25,000 and/or jailed for six months. The city acknowledges that many Sacramento residents are unaware of this particular orthodoxy existing throughout the city and have issued online warnings to “not take matters into your own hands!”
-Written by: m.wilson