Winter 2008 Edition

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NIPPING IT IN THE BUD!

“Healthy Trees” provides young tree care, avoiding costly future problems.

Volunteers improve their pruning skills and provide young tree care, made possible by the Healthy Trees grant!

It’s a big job, but someone’s gotta do it! Our goal? To provide care to at least 8,000 young trees over the next year! This ambitious new program, Healthy Trees, has been made possible with a grant from the California Department of Forestry. This long awaited funding allows OCF to provide additional care, including pruning, to the young trees we have provided to neighborhoods, schools, and parks.

Large maintenance projects of over 100 trees are usually tackled on Saturdays, and volunteer muscle from our Tree Amigos, community volunteer groups, and OCF Americorps members have made it all possible. We began to intensively service large school plantings after the holiday break, and now in February we have already completed over 25% of the trees. There is no shortage of trees that still need maintenance, as the care provided, particularly structural pruning, is a necessary service for all young trees.

Young tree care, such as structural pruning, staking, mulching, and maintaining a watering basin, is essential as it corrects small problems that would eventually compromise the tree’s health. By administering early pruning, we can avoid more dramatic and costly measures that would become necessary later in the tree’s life. For example, pruning a low-growing limb when young leaves a much smaller wound and requires much smaller cost and effort than removing the same limb years later. Or, a vigorously growing limb with poor attachment to the trunk can be removed easily when young, thus preventing its likely breakage in a storm as a much larger branch.

The maintenance projects take place rain or shine, and our volunteers have been hard at work in both. “I like working in the rain,” said OCF Americorps member Matt Flora-Tostado, “It is peaceful.” When asked how he felt about the work, he said, “It’s very rewarding, because all the little decisions, that may take only minutes to act on, will affect the growth of tree 20 or 40 years later.” When asked what his favorite part of maintenance was, Matt said, “If you see that a tree is staked poorly, you can fix that and get things back in order. It starts looking like a proper tree – it’s very satisfying.”

OCF is optimistic about meeting goals for the Healthy Trees Grant, and will continue with help from all our dedicated volunteers, to provide tree care for San Jose’s urban forest, as the forest continues to provide for us.

Thank You, PG&E!

OCF Receives Award

District 6 Council Member Pierluigi Oliverio presented Our City Forest and President Rhonda Berry, with a Good Neighbor Award at Mayor Reed’s State of the City Address on January 16th. OCF was recognized for its urban forestry efforts throughout San Jose. Our City Forest Americorps members and staff volunteered at the event and handled the adoption of over 200 native trees to attendees.

to the Rescue!

Who would have thought a cell phone could help recover a stolen vehicle? OCF had the need to use their Loopt phones in a whole different way when a van was found missing during a neighborhood maintenance project. The phones, which were donated by Loopt, an up-and-coming company based in Mountain View, are equipped with Loopt’s tracking software. This allows users to see the locations of selected “friends” on a map. Luckily, a volunteer had left their phone in the van – which gave OCF and police the ability to track the van as it sped along the highway and eventually, to the spot where it was recovered. Whew! Thanks Loopt!

Thank you Loopt for your generosity! For more information on Loopt services, visit www.loopt.com.

Tu B'Shevat Celebration

Jewish families in San Jose along with Our City Forest staff and volunteers gathered to celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year for Trees on Sunday, January 27th. Four groups fanned out around San Jose to plant street trees for disabled and senior residents unable to plant on their own. On Tuesday, January 29 members from San Jose Environmental Services Department planted a tree for a senior resident to commemorate the day. According to the Jewish calendar, Tu B’Shevat falls on the 15th day of the month of Shevat, and is a celebration of spring and an appreciation of the interconnectedness of people and nature. Tu B’Shevat is often celebrated by planting trees locally or in Israel or by participating in a seder. More recently it has become a Jewish Arbor Day. OCF is proud to be a part of this wonderful celebration of nature and community!

Growing Up Green!

Nearly 250,000 K-12 students reside in San Jose, and the future of our city’s trees will eventually lie in their hands. Will these students know the importance of their urban forest? That all depends on whether they have become Branch Buddies through Planet Tree’s newest K-5 program.
In less than an hour, children are introduced to the anatomy of trees, the importance and benefit of their presence in a city, and what they can do as Buddies to help the environment.

“On my street or in my yard, helping trees is not that hard. I will be their eyes and ears, standing up when danger nears. I am (insert enthusiastic youngster’s name here), and I am a Branch Buddy!” Complete with hand motions and coordinated dance moves, young tree-lovers learn the importance of caring for trees as they pledge allegiance to the rank of Branch Buddy.

Children who have joined clearly take pride in this status and all that they have learned. “I really wanted to be a branch buddy when you came in because I love trees. I knew that roots were important. I didn’t know what photosynthesis was. But, now I know,” wrote Amanda, a third grader at Meadows Elementary.

The fun isn’t limited to elementary age children, however; programs are now reaching middle and high school age students as Planet Tree expands. The involvement of both Cub and Boy Scouts will also increase OCF connection with youth in the area as Planet Tree introduces “Forester Badge” programs to local troops.

FREE ENERGY-EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS!

Our City Forest has given out 750 FREE energy efficient lightbulbs to San Jose residents over the past few months. PG&E provided the Energy Star Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) for OCF to distribute around the city. CFLs use 75% less energy than traditional bulbs and last up to 10 times longer! Not only do CFLs save money, they also keep hundreds of pounds of CO2 greenhouse gas out of the atmosphere. However, CFLs must be disposed of properly. To find out where to recycle CFLs and old bulbs, go to www.earth911.org or call 1-877-EARTH911.

Eco-Silicon Valley