The Arden Tree Program is unique program in the state of California, a street tree planting on private property, with a goal of involving the entire neighborhood in the effort. It was the largest single-day neighborhood tree planting in the State of California in 2004, with 447 tree going in on one day in six neighborhoods. In 2002, our initial year we planted 320 trees in one Neighborhood In 2003, we planted 280 trees and the program won the Sacramento Tree Foundation's Tree Hero Award for the entire region. In 2005 we planted 260 trees and in 2006, 132 trees. But we have thousands more tree to plant to replace our aging street trees and retained our shady streets. In 2004, Alan Hirsch, the organizer and founder for the program was recognized as California Volunteer of the Year by the California Urban Forestry Council and won the Enerson Award lifetime achievement award from the National Arbor Day Foundation. Gregg Fishman, Co-Chair, won a clean air award from the Sacramento Lung Association (now Breathe, California) for his leadership and media outreach. We have had extensive press coverage in the Bee, Inside Arden, and Arden-Carmichael News as well as on TV and Capitol Public Radio. . Sacramento Bee called us a model for the region in their lead editorial on August 7, 2004: 2004: City of Trees Act II Arden Park has it made in the shade In Shakespeare's "As You Like It," the Forest of Arden is an enchanted woodland where couples enter and fall in love. When Sacramento's Arden Park neighborhood was built in the late 1940s and early '50s, a woodland grew there too. Developers planted Modesto ash trees in the front yards of each one of the 1,900 homes that make up Arden Park. As the trees matured they formed broad, leafy canopies that stretched for blocks, cooling the streets and gracing the neighborhood. But Modesto ash has a 50-year life span, 60 or 70 years, if well cared for. Now Arden Park's street trees are fast approaching their end. The once towering Modesto ashes are dying at a rate of about 5 percent a year. The canopy they formed is receding, leaving barren, sun bleached streets in their wake. It doesn't have to be. Alarmed residents have organized to preserve their urban forest. For the past two years, an army of volunteers have met on a specified date in October to plant trees to replace Arden Park's dead and dying Modesto ash. They will meet again this year. The project involves much more than just sticking any old tree in the ground. A Palm, Redwood or Crepe Myrtle may be beautiful, but their branches do not spread out to provide the cathedral effect that was once the hallmark of the Arden Park neighborhood. A panel of experts from the Sacramento Tree Foundation has developed a list of ten different trees that will branch out as they grow eventually touching the branches of the tree planted in the neighbor's yard across the street - recreating the leafy sunscreen that shaded this neighborhood so beautifully and efficiently in the past. Organizers first canvas the neighborhood, persuading individual homeowners to agree to plant one or more trees in their yards. They then inspect to make sure the spot where the tree will be placed in the ground is the right distance from the street and won't hit a sewer or gas line. The spot is marked and on a single day a back hoe, donated by SureWest, the communications company, plies the neighborhood digging the holes where the new trees, donated by SMUD, will be planted. Sunday, Oct. 24 is this year's Arden Park Tree Day. In something akin to an old fashioned barn raising, volunteers, churches, synagogues, Scout troops and just ordinary neighbors will meet to plant some 300 trees in a single day. Those who don't do the actual planting help organize, provide, lemonade or bake cookies. The goal is to plant 3,000 trees over 10 years. Arden Park's tree crisis is not unique. Disease, neglect and simple old age are threats across Sacramento, the city of trees. But it is possible that our reputation as the city of trees can be saved and our neighborhoods made stronger and more beautiful at the same time. The Arden Park Tree Day campaign shows us the way. |
| All photos of Trees (c) Alan Hirsch 2004 |
Media: What Others are Saying about Us
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