Our City Forest in the News
A forest in the city! - Our City Forest on KTVU Channel 2 News
Our City Forest brings trees to an urban landscape. Volunteer and Outreach Program Manager, Lowell Berry, explains how the program works and how local residents can get involved with planting trees and volunteering opportunities.
8-year-old 'Lawnbuster' is changing the world one yard at a time
The past three years have been the driest on record in California and officials warn that streak could continue. The weather, in next couple of months, will determine if there will be some relief for the state. Until then, water officials say conservation needs to remain a way of life. That's exactly what a group of volunteers in the South Bay set out to do. Among them, an 8-year-old 'lawnbuster' who's giving back to his community one drought-resistant yard, at a time.
Our City Forest on She Media
Marisa Zulaski speaks with She Media radio about our Cool & Green Initiative and about our AmeriCorps recruitment.
Our City Forest on SVTAGS
Sean Guess, Director of Green Jobs and Community Partnerships at Our City Forest, has a conversation with SVTAGS (Silicon Valley - Technology, Art, Green & Sustainability.
Arbor Day celebration kicks off plan to plant 1K trees in 2022
Our City Forest celebrated this year's Arbor Day by planting 27 trees at the Santa Clara County Office of Education South County Annex in Gilroy on April 29,2022 in conjunction with the County of Santa Clara Office of Sustainability and County Office of Education. The initiative follows a February 2020 decision by the County Board of Supervisors, which approved a three-year pilot program that aims to plant and maintain 1,000 trees each year.
Why are San Jose’s trees disappearing?
San Jose’s trees are slowly vanishing.Despite boasting ambitious climate goals, the nation’s 10th largest city is in the midst of an environmental crisis as the tree canopy that shades it has dwindled by 1.82% between 2012 and 2018.
“If you’re outside walking, jogging, playing, anything, you really want to be doing that where there are trees because otherwise, I like to say you’re inhaling tires,” said Rhonda Berry, CEO of Our City Forest, Silicon Valley’s leading urban forestry nonprofit, which plants most new trees in San Jose. “To me, (trees) are like high-tech technology. They do it all.”
San Jose’s urban forest plan baffles, angers stakeholders
An ambitious plan laying out the future of San Jose’s urban forest is riddled with errors, omissions and a lack of vision, according to stakeholders who say they were left out of the process. “The number of inaccuracies and omissions of important issues are reflective of a lack of external stakeholder input during the process,” said Our City Forest President and CEO Rhonda Berry.
LOCAL
San Jose neighborhood’s shady trees off the chopping block
City staff promises to keep Harrison Street neighbors in the loop on paving project.
Read more from Mercury News here
Drought putting Bay Area trees under stress; ‘Give them water’ says water district
It’s easy to see the beauty and benefits of large, mature trees. What’s harder to see is that the drought is already putting many of them under stress. “You can’t just replace a large mature tree like that. You need to plant the tree and wait and wait, 30 to even, like, hundreds of years,” said Sophia Saavedra from Our City Forest.
STATE
Berkeley schools sow the seeds of climate progress with ‘pocket forests’
Elementary students asked how they could do their part to stop climate change. A year later, their science teacher had an answer: micro-forests.
Learn more about pocket forests here
California couple fined for digging up and burying Joshua trees
A California couple has been fined for digging up and burying dozens of protected Joshua trees to make room for a home they were building, officials said.
4 Famous Giant Trees Unharmed by Sequoia National Park Fire
4 Famous Giant Trees Unharmed by Sequoia National Park Fire
NATIONAL
This new cement could become America’s next big bumper crop and help save the world as we know it
Colorado-based Prometheus Materials and other emerging companies are developing new biocements that could help meet the world’s growing concrete demands and avert climate catastrophe.
The false promise of massive tree-planting campaigns
Large tree-planting initiative often fail— and some have even fueled deforestation.
Where are most trees in cities growing…or not?
Trees are critical infrastructure that every person in every neighborhood deserves. Find your Tree Equity Score and help create Tree Equity in cities and towns across America.
Learn more about Tree Equity and find your score here
Planting Trees in a City 30 Years Ago May Have Lowered the Risk of Deaths From Diseases
30 years after a mass tree-planting event in Oregon, research has shown those who live near them are at lower risks of death from cardiovascular disease, as well as other non-accidental deaths.
Many More U.S. Tree Species Are ‘Threatened with Extinction’ Than We Thought
A new study highlights how invasive pests and diseases are growing in a changing climate, and could kill off more trees than we thought.
Read more from Popular Mechanics here
Bringing back trees to 'Forest City's' redlined areas helps residents and the climate
The city of Cleveland is trying to address two big problems at the same time: climate change and racial and economic disparities.
Read more or listen on NPR here
Since when have trees existed only for rich Americans?
Access to clean air and outdoor activities seems like a basic right. But in cities across the country, lower-income communities and communities of color more often live in neighborhoods with a higher share of concrete surfaces such as roads, buildings and parking lots, and a very limited number of trees and parks.
A million ‘super trees’ are coming to clean Houston’s air in the next decade
Houston officials are planting native trees that absorb carbon dioxide and offer other benefits.
Read more from Popular Science here
Florida is ditching palm trees to fight the climate crisis
When you think of Florida, images of beaches and palm trees come to mind. But what if those palm trees were slowly replaced with other trees? That's what could happen over time thanks to climate change. Groups in Florida are choosing to plant oaks over palms.
The American Bumblebee Has Vanished From Eight States
In two decades, the insect's population has declined by nearly 90 percent due to a combination of threats, including habitat loss, pesticides and diseases
Read more from Smithsonian Magazine here
How America’s hottest city is trying to cool down
Can trees help save Phoenix from extreme heat?
Read more or watch from Vox here
Man ticketed in suburban Chicago dog park for tree treatment
A man says he sprayed trees in a suburban Chicago park to protect them after an anxious dog chewed off the bark.
US needs 30m new trees to combat shade disparity, study finds
First ever nationwide tally of trees reveals how communities of color and poorer neighborhoods lack canopy. With vast swathes of the American west baking under a record-setting heatwave, a new study has revealed how unevenly trees are spread throughout cities in the United States and how much it disadvantages communities of color and the poor.
INTERNATIONAL
Birmingham trees deliver nearly £4m of health benefits
We all know pollution from traffic causes health problems for people who live in cities and towns, but did you know the noise from traffic also has a big impact on our health?
Planting extra trees will boost rainfall across Europe
Planting extra trees to combat climate change across Europe could also increase rainfall, research suggests.
The hybrid tree that conquered the world
The world's cities have always been radically hostile environments for trees – but there’s one variety that’s proved to be remarkably resilient.